Memory of Saint Nicholas (+ 350). He was a bishop in Asia Minor (present day Turkey) and is venerated throughout East. Read more
Memory of Saint Nicholas (+ 350). He was a bishop in Asia Minor (present day Turkey) and is venerated throughout East.
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
Song of Songs 3, 6-11
POET: What is this coming up from the desert like a column of smoke, breathing of myrrh and frankincense and every exotic perfume?
Here comes Solomon's litter. Around it are sixty champions, the flower of the warriors of Israel;
all of them skilled swordsmen, expert in war. Each man has his sword at his side, against alarms by night.
King Solomon has had a palanquin made of wood from Lebanon.
He has had the posts made of silver, the canopy of gold, the seat of purple; the centre is inlaid with ebony.
Daughters of Zion, come and see King Solomon, wearing the diadem with which his mother crowned him on his wedding day, on the day of his heart's joy.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
"How beautiful you are, my love, how very beautiful!" Thus the lover begins his song by praising his beloved and he concludes with the same warmth of feeling: "You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you" (v. 7). This is the praise of the beloved’s beauty, and in medieval Christian canticle tradition, it is an affirmation used in the well-known song dedicated to Mary, the Mother of Jesus: "Tota pulchra", i.e. "All beauty." The love with which the lover beholds his beloved is so strong that he is unable to see any of her defects and exclaims, "There is no flaw in you." The description of the beauty of her body emphasizes the lovers’ full and attractive harmony, and the symbolism in the description suggests the spiritual sense of the text. The description of the beauty of the different parts of her body evokes characteristics of the Promised Land. Her hair is thick and soft like the fleece of the best goats found on the slopes in Gilead, beyond Jordan. Her cheeks are like pomegranates, fruit found in Israel and considered a symbol of fertility because of the numerous grains inside them. Her neck decorated with a necklace reminds us of the tower of David (perhaps a building in Jerusalem) on which hung the shields of heroes. Her breasts are like fawns, animals dear to the author of the Song of Songs as a sign of love and of liberty.
Every part of the woman’s body draws the lover to him. In truth, the love he has for his beloved is what makes her beautiful and attractive. In old Hebrew interpretations, the passage read, "How beautiful you are, Assembly of Israel! How beautiful are the elders of the Assembly and the wise ones who sit in the Sanhedrin. They illuminate the world, the people of the house of Israel...How beautiful are the priests and the Levites who offer your sacrifice... All of you is beautiful, Assembly of Israel and in you there is no flaw." These are words that we can apply to the Church, God’s creation. Love is what makes his creation look beautiful; it is not because she is flawless but because love covers all things.
Moreover, this is the meaning of the entire story of God with humanity. As believers, we are all beautiful, not by virtue of our own qualities, but because God loves us. God’s loving gaze heals, saves, pardons and redeems us. We must also look this way at others, knowing that every person--without exception--is looked at by God with love. This is why he or she is beautiful and attractive. In the love God has for everyone, the weak have a privileged place. We are all beautiful before God but the poor and the weak are the most beautiful. We are invited to look at the world in the same way. Seeing the poor, the sick, the weak and the abandoned, we should sing like the Song of Songs: "You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you."
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
