Remembrance of Modesta, a homeless woman who was refused medical assistance because she was dirty and was left to die in the Termini train station in Rome in 1983. Along with her we remember all those who die in the streets without a home and succours. Read more
Remembrance of Modesta, a homeless woman who was refused medical assistance because she was dirty and was left to die in the Termini train station in Rome in 1983. Along with her we remember all those who die in the streets without a home and succours.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Psalm 22, 26-32
25 From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
my vows I will pay before those who fear him.
26 The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the Lord.
May your hearts live for ever!
27 All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before him.
28 For dominion belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations.
29 To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
and I shall live for him.
30 Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord,
31 and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn,
saying that he has done it.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The verses of the psalm we sing after the first reading are part of the well-known psalm 22, the one which begins with the words that Jesus spoke on the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This opening, anguished plea encapsulates the entire psalm, just as it encapsulates Jesus’ entire passion, and, with him, the cry of all the desperate of the world. The suffering man asks God for an explanation to something he cannot understand. In effect, this psalm is an invocation that rises up to God, to my God, to our God, to the One who is our God to whom we belong. And yet, God seems to abandon us, not caring about our suffering. This cry expresses both belonging and abandonment, humanity’s plea and God’s silence. It is the question of the many poor people who have been abandoned, those condemned to death, the sick who are lonely, entire peoples who are oppressed, and the victims of human violence and natural disaster. Why? There is so much anguish in those who suffer, but hope remains; there is so much heart-rending abandonment, but there is also trust. This is the miracle of faith. The psalmist calls on God not to stay far from him. And he is answered: his lamentation we are at verse 23 turns into a prayer of thanksgiving: “I will tell your name to my brothers and sisters; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you” (v. 23). And in the second part of the psalm, the suffering man, now healed by the love of God, tells everyone about the power and goodness of the Lord, a goodness that does not abandon us even when everything else seems to indicate otherwise. This psalm, which opened with an anguished plea, now concludes with a certainty full of serenity. Salvation the psalmist seems to be suggesting starts with the poor, with the periphery, to use the words of Pope Francis: “The poor shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord” (v. 27). Love for the poor becomes attractive because in it is revealed the Lord’s gratuitous love: “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord; and all the families of the nations shall worship before him” (v. 28). It is a lesson that we should treasure. Love for the poor is the surest way to “see” the love of God, a way that everyone can see and practice. And it is the greatest thing that we can transmit to future generations. When the poor are helped, they will say, “[The Lord] has done it!” (v. 32).
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
