Memory of Gigi, a child from Naples who was violently killed. With him we remember all the children who suffer and who die because of human violence. Prayer for all children. Read more
Memory of Gigi, a child from Naples who was violently killed. With him we remember all the children who suffer and who die because of human violence. Prayer for all children.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Song of Songs 7, 1-9
CHORUS: Come back, come back, girl from Shulam, come back, come back, where we can look at you! Why are you looking at the girl from Shulam, dancing between two lines of dancers?
LOVER: How beautiful are your feet in their sandals, O prince's daughter! The curve of your thighs is like the curve of a necklace, work of a master hand.
Your navel is a bowl well rounded with no lack of wine, your belly a heap of wheat surrounded with lilies.
Your two breasts are two fawns, twins of a gazelle.
Your neck is an ivory tower. Your eyes, the pools of Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-Rabbim. Your nose, the Tower of Lebanon, sentinel facing Damascus.
Your head is held high like Carmel, and its hair is as dark as purple; a king is held captive in your tresses.
How beautiful you are, how charming, my love, my delight!
In stature like the palm tree, its fruit-clusters your breasts.
I have decided, 'I shall climb the palm tree, I shall seize its clusters of dates!' May your breasts be clusters of grapes, your breath sweet-scented as apples,
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The chorus begs the beloved woman to turn around, "Return, return, that we may look upon you." It is a warm invitation to the "fairest among women" to allow herself to be seen. She is called Shulammite, a symbolic name derived from "Shalom", like the new "Solomon," which is the name of the beloved man. Solomon, the groom, and Shulammite ("the pacified") are bound by "peace", or, if one likes, have the vocation of peace inscribed in their names. Peace is always tied to encounter, dialogue, and festivity. It is remarkable that the Shulammite begins a particularly festive dance, referred to as "a dance before two armies," a sign of completeness and joy. The beloved man watches her dance and praises the beauty of each part of her body. Unlike the preceding description of the woman’s beauty, which began with the head, this time the song starts with her feet, "How graceful are your feet in sandals, O queenly maiden!" This calls to mind the praise given to the feet of those who announce peace in the book of Isaiah: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace" (52:7). The beloved man then passionately and unabashedly sings about nine other parts of the woman’s body, accompanied by easily-identifiable artistic comparisons or references to geographic features of the promised land well-known to the Jewish reader. Her eyes are compared to two pools of water near the city of Heshbon, her nose to the tower of Lebanon overlooking Damascus, and her head to Mount Carmel. Her entire body evokes the palm tree, slender and tall, while her intoxicating kisses recall grapes, wine, and perfumes. Each of the ten parts of her body is given particular praise. It is the gaze with which the astonished lover contemplates the body of his beloved. We could say that it is the gaze with which the Lord contemplates his Church. This brings to mind the image of the body used by the apostle Paul to describe the Church in its oneness and its multiplicity. The body is one, but there are many members. The oneness of the beloved’s body is important (the Song reads, "You are stately as a palm tree"), but so is the multiplicity of its members (her rounded thighs, her navel, her belly, her breasts, her neck, her eyes, her nose, and her hair). How can we avoid thinking of the "body of Christ", the Church, which the apostle describes by speaking of the multiplicity of the charisms that make it up? There are many of them, and they are all important. Each one has a task, which it can complete through the strength of the Spirit that gave it to the Church. And all are called to contribute to the unity of the one Body. We are also called to lift our eyes from ourselves and contemplate the Church in all of its richness, in all of its variety, and to rejoice in it with the Lord. Like the bride in verse 11, we will say, "I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me." We if can sing like this, we will love the Lord as he himself loves us.
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
