Memory of Saint Anthony the Abbot. He followed the Lord into the Egyptian desert and was father of many monks. A day of reflection on the relationship between Judaism and Christianity. Read more
Memory of Saint Anthony the Abbot. He followed the Lord into the Egyptian desert and was father of many monks. A day of reflection on the relationship between Judaism and Christianity.
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
Proverbs 4, 1-9
Listen, my children, to a father's instruction; pay attention, and learn what understanding is.
What I am offering you is sound doctrine: do not forsake my teaching.
I too was once a child with a father, in my mother's eyes a tender child, unique.
This was what he used to teach me, 'Let your heart treasure what I have to say, keep my principles and you will live;
acquire wisdom, acquire understanding, never forget her, never deviate from my words.
Do not desert her, she will keep you safe; love her, she will watch over you.
The first principle of wisdom is: acquire wisdom; at the cost of all you have, acquire understanding!
Hold her close, and she will make you great; embrace her, and she will be your pride;
she will provide a graceful garland for your head, bestow a crown of honour on you.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Again and with insistence we hear: "Listen, children, to a father’s instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight." The father-child relationship, as proposed by the wise teacher to the disciple-by God to man-, is explained as natural and familiar, inviting us to enter into it: "When I was a son with my father, tender, and my mother’s favourite, he taught me, and said to me... ." The invitation is insistent: "Get" wisdom and knowledge. "For her income is better than silver, and her revenue better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her" (Prov 3:14-15). The inestimable value of wisdom asks that we invest our resources so as to acquire it. In a world disposed towards spending for its own material and physical well-being, the Word of God asks us to invest in things that do not perish. This message is repeated later in an absolute manner: "The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever else you get, get insight." Whoever is not afraid to invest his resources and life in wisdom, will begin to see its fruits. Loving and esteeming wisdom lead us to glory. One could ask why there is so much insistence upon this. The passages we have examined up to this point are nothing but a continuous appeal to seek out and acquire wisdom. We need to realize that the author probably found himself in front of a society not at all interested in investing its riches in search of the wisdom and knowledge that come from God; otherwise we cannot comprehend the continual invitation to return to and never forget the Lord’s instruction. In verse 3 the words "tender and favourite" for my mother means, in reality, the "beloved son," the one to whom every mother gives her preferential love. We are also beloved children of God, and as such he wants us to put our energy into the things he reveals to us through his words and teachings. The tender and patient love of God ought to convince us that it is worth listening to his teaching, so as not to get lost in ourselves. Let us acquire God’s word treasure by investing all of ourselves into it, because from this treasure comes joy, peace, goodness and wisdom.
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
