Memory of the apostles Simon the Canaanite, called the Zealot, and Judas surnamed Thaddeus.
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Memory of the apostles Simon the Canaanite, called the Zealot, and Judas surnamed Thaddeus.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Revelation 10,8-11
Then I heard the voice I had heard from heaven speaking to me again. 'Go', it said, 'and take that open scroll from the hand of the angel standing on sea and land.'
I went to the angel and asked him to give me the small scroll, and he said, 'Take it and eat it; it will turn your stomach sour, but it will taste as sweet as honey.'
So I took it out of the angel's hand, and I ate it and it tasted sweet as honey, but when I had eaten it my stomach turned sour.
Then I was told, 'You are to prophesy again, this time against many different nations and countries and languages and kings.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
We are in the central scene of the book of Revelation. While he is looking at the Angel (the Messiah) holding the "little scroll" in his hand, John hears a voice order him to go and take it from his hand. He is performing the same gesture as the Lamb, who took the scroll from the hand of the One who was seated on the throne (Rev. 5:7). But, while the Lamb moved on his own, demonstrating his full power, John has to wait for the command: "Go, take the scroll." We always need an angel to show us what to do and how to do it. We all need to be invited to "take the scroll." Salvation does not come from us, from our effort or our hard work; it comes from listening to the Gospel. And to make listening easier for us, there is a brother or sister who helps us understand the deeper meaning of what is written. The Word of God cannot be read by someone who is alone and detached from the community of believers. Just as no one can baptize him or herself (no one can become Christian alone), no one can listen to the Word of God outside of the Church. We always need to listen to the angel and listen to him again. John hears the voice add: "Take it, and eat!" The Gospel needs to be listened to, attended to, fathomed, learned by heart, read and reread, seen and seen again, just as we would do with our most precious treasure. Repeating the image used by John, we could say that it does not just need to be swallowed; it needs to be digested. Our salvation and the salvation of the world depend on that little book. It is a word that is "sweet as honey," because it is "God’s love letter to us," as the Fathers say. But it is also a "bitter" word when it descends into our stomach, that is, when it enters our lives. It corrects and directs our lives; it cuts and builds, exhorts and rebukes. This "bitterness" is needed to pull us away from our selfishness and help us to grow to the stature of 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
