Memory of the prophet Elijah who was taken into heaven and left his mantle to Elisha. Read more
Memory of the prophet Elijah who was taken into heaven and left his mantle to Elisha.
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
1 Peter 4, 1-6
As Christ has undergone bodily suffering, you too should arm yourselves with the same conviction, that anyone who has undergone bodily suffering has broken with sin,
because for the rest of life on earth that person is ruled not by human passions but only by the will of God.
You spent quite long enough in the past living the sort of life that gentiles choose to live, behaving in a debauched way, giving way to your passions, drinking to excess, having wild parties and drunken orgies and sacrilegiously worshipping false gods.
So people are taken aback that you no longer hurry off with them to join this flood which is rushing down to ruin, and then abuse you for it.
They will have to answer for it before the judge who is to judge the living and the dead.
And this was why the gospel was brought to the dead as well, so that, though in their bodies they had undergone the judgement that faces all humanity, in their spirit they might enjoy the life of God.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Peter writes that this life is a time of struggle against ourselves and our egoism (the desires of the flesh.) Earlier, the apostle warned that the desires of the flesh "wage war against the soul". In effect, life is also a struggle against evil, a battle that involves every person and every believer. For this reason, Peter calls us to arm ourselves with the same feelings of Christ: it is about fighting the same battle. The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, describes "the whole armour of God" (Eph 6:11): the belt stands for truth, the armour, justice, the shield, faith, the helmet, salvation and the sword, the Word of God. Peter assumes all of these armaments into one: the imitation of Christ. The better weapon for fighting the battle against evil is precisely that: living like Jesus, that is, by putting the Gospel into practice by the letter. The first battle, therefore, that we should conduct is the one against ourselves and our egoism. The transformation of world begins from changing ourselves. When each believer breaks away from sin, not only does the believer change, but also the world changes. Peter seems to want to lunge with his exhortation, saying that we need to stop letting ourselves be overpowered by human desires: "You have already spent enough time in doing what the Gentiles like to do, living in licentiousness, passions, drunkenness, revels, carousing, and lawless idolatry." At times we have little awareness of the presence of evil within and outside us and we accept everything as if normal. In this way Christian life becomes mediocre and follows the world without questioning. Every Christian generation is called to fight the good fight of the Gospel against the evil that surrounds the lives of men and women so that we can already live in "another" world. Certainly the behaviour of believers always remains foreign to the common egocentric and violent mentality; but it is precisely in this foreignness to evil that everyone, both alive and deceased, finds salvation.
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
