Prayer for the unity of the Churches. Particular memory of the Churches and ecclesial communities (Lutheran, Reformed, Methodist, Baptist and Pentecostal). Read more
Prayer for the unity of the Churches. Particular memory of the Churches and ecclesial communities (Lutheran, Reformed, Methodist, Baptist and Pentecostal).
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Mark 3, 20-21
He went home again, and once more such a crowd collected that they could not even have a meal.
When his relations heard of this, they set out to take charge of him; they said, 'He is out of his mind.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Jesus returns to the house in Capernaum. And as usual, a large crowd gathers and looks for him. The crowd is so large and pressing that they prevent him even from eating. It is always the crowd of needy for whom Jesus is moved and for whom he seems not to be at peace. This scene so frequent in the Gospels questions the laziness that so many times marks our life. How many times we get caught in our personal rhythms, those that fit our needs, and we completely forget about considering whether others may need help. We should not be always at the centre and the measure of our days and concerns. The Lord entrusted to us brothers and sisters, poor and sick for whom we should be responsible. And if our lives take this rhythm, we too will hear the same criticism Jesus’ family addressed to him: "You are exaggerating! You cannot think only of others!" and so on. Often one may receive also the accusation of being "too good," as Jesus sometimes received directly these accusations. And yet he did not distance himself from the obedience to his Father’s will. He was only twelve when he answered to Mary and Joseph who, worried, were looking for him: "Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?" His relatives reach the point of saying that "he has gone out if his mind - "that he is crazy - and try to catch him to bring him back to normality, to the flatness of indifference. On the contrary, the Gospel is like a fire that burns and moves. It is the strength of love that always leads to "go out "of ourselves and our narrow horizons in order to welcome that of God.
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
