Memory of Saint Nil, Russian starlets (+ 1508). He was the father of monks to whom he taught the Lord's great love for humanity, exhorting them to ask God for His own feelings (macro Imia in Greek).
Memory of the prayer for the new martyrs presided over by John Paul II at the Coliseum in Rome with the representatives of Christian churches.
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Memory of Saint Nil, Russian starlets (+ 1508). He was the father of monks to whom he taught the Lord’s great love for humanity, exhorting them to ask God for His own feelings (macro Imia in Greek).
Memory of the prayer for the new martyrs presided over by John Paul II at the Coliseum in Rome with the representatives of Christian churches.
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
Galatians 4, 12-20
I urge you, brothers,-be like me, as I have become like you. You have never been unfair to me;
indeed you remember that it was an illness that first gave me the opportunity to preach the gospel to you,
but though my illness was a trial to you, you did not show any distaste or revulsion; instead, you welcomed me as a messenger of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself.
What has happened to the utter contentment you had then? For I can testify to you that you would have plucked your eyes out, were that possible, and given them to me.
Then have I turned into your enemy simply by being truthful with you?
Their devotion to you has no praiseworthy motive; they simply want to cut you off from me, so that you may centre your devotion on them.
Devotion to a praiseworthy cause is praiseworthy at any time, not only when I am there with you.
My children, I am going through the pain of giving birth to you all over again, until Christ is formed in you;
and how I wish I could be there with you at this moment and find the right way of talking to you: I am quite at a loss with you.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Paul reminds the Galatians of the intense fraternity in which he had lived with them. He wants them to recall his example, "Become as I am!" The apostle knows that the pastor needs to be a model for his flock. He writes to the Corinthians, too, "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ!" (1 Cor 11:1). To draw them to Christ, Paul "became as them." And they indeed believed in Jesus. The apostle happily reminds them of the fraternal communion in which they lived together; he not only praises them because they did him "no wrong" but also because they welcomed the Gospel he preached. Paul did not plan to stay in Galatia during his second voyage (cf. Acts 16:6); sickness obliged him to stop there, and he took advantage of this forced stay to preach the Gospel. The Galatians did not refuse his preaching; in fact, they welcomed the apostle "as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus." This is why he can ask the Galatians what has become of the "goodwill" which they felt before. In their joy following their conversion they would have done anything for Paul; and yet, now they allow themselves to be duped by false teachers who work deceitfully ("they make much of you") to pull them away from him. Paul speaks in a fatherly but firm way. The Galatians are his children and he loves them with the love of a mother who gave birth to her child in pain, or even better, who generated Christ in their hearts. The Letter itself (like every preaching) is part of this work of "generation" that continues his apostolic commitment.
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
