Memory of the virgin Mary, venerated as Our Lady of Lujàn in Argentina. Read more
Memory of the virgin Mary, venerated as Our Lady of Lujàn in Argentina.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Colossians 1, 1-2
From Paul, by the will of God an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy
to God's holy people in Colossae, our faithful brothers in Christ. Grace and peace to you from God our Father.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Paul presents himself to the Colossians as an apostle, meaning someone sent by Christ to communicate the Gospel. This is the source of his authority indeed, his duty to intervene in the life of the community of Colossae. Moreover, Paul is not alone in his ministry, but has Timothy with him, as if to make visible the fact that disciples were sent “two by two.” (Gregory the Great comments on Jesus’ decision to do this with these words: “He sent them two by two so that their first proclamation would be their mutual love.”) The mission to proclaim the Gospel is never a solitary job: it always requires a fraternity, from which it is born and towards which it flows: the Gospel begins from the community and creates the community of brothers and sisters. This is why Paul calls Timothy “brother,” and the addressees of the letter are also “brothers and sisters”: “to the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ.” From its beginning, Christian history is a history of fraternity, that is, the story of men and women called by God from different places and different affiliations to form a “family.” And this is possible because their bond is “in Christ,” in the fact that they all share in the one Gospel. Christian fraternity has its origin and foundation in God’s paternity and becomes real when we unite ourselves to Christ, “the firstborn within a large family” (Romans 8:29). The Christian family is a very particular one, where every distance is overcome, and where we are all brought close to one another, above and beyond the personal experiences, the history, the culture, and the condition of each individual. Even though he knows that he is an apostle and feels a sense of paternal responsibility towards the Colossians (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:15), Paul does not put himself above the community. He recognizes himself as a brother among brothers; like all the believers, Paul knows well that above all else he is a disciple. Being disciples makes the believers “saints”, that is, “separated” from a destiny of loneliness and death, and so also “faithful”, that is, believers who know how to persevere in their love for Jesus. By greeting these “saints” with the double wish for “grace” and “peace”, he invokes God’s blessing on them.
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
