Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
1 Timothy 2, 9-15
Similarly, women are to wear suitable clothes and to be dressed quietly and modestly, without braided hair or gold and jewellery or expensive clothes;
their adornment is to do the good works that are proper for women who claim to be religious.
During instruction, a woman should be quiet and respectful.
I give no permission for a woman to teach or to have authority over a man. A woman ought to be quiet,
because Adam was formed first and Eve afterwards,
and it was not Adam who was led astray but the woman who was led astray and fell into sin.
Nevertheless, she will be saved by child-bearing, provided she lives a sensible life and is constant in faith and love and holiness.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Paul knows that the way we pray is not indifferent. On the contrary, the attitude that the brothers and sisters have among themselves reveals the quality of their fellowship. We could say that the way of the common prayer decides the very way of living of the community. This is why he formulates certain principles on how to pray with "holy hands," with a heart sincere, humble and filial. In prayer the believers should be free of "anger or argument," in other words, live in peace with all as Christ said: "So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift" (Mt 5:23ff). Paul knows well that animosity between brothers and sisters is a sin which hinders the encounter with God and makes prayer difficult. He then directs an exhortation to women: their true adornment must not be exterior but interior, so that beauty may be in the heart and not just visibly apparent. Peter in his first letter, also writes: "Do not adorn yourselves outwardly by braiding your hair, and by wearing gold ornaments or fine clothing; rather, let your adornment be the inner self with the lasting beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in God’s sight." (1Pet 3:3 ff). Paul, moreover, prohibits women from coming forward, to teach and talk during the Liturgy. That is not the place for displays or for the protagonism of a few, but the moment in which listening should prevail and concord and fraternity. The apostle and the first community take the order to be maintained in prayer from the customs of the Old Testament, which view women as in submission to men. It is a concept tied to ancient traditions and social norms implemented at Paul’s time, but it does not undermine the fundamental equality or common dignity before God that admit all in holiness and in the task of communicating the Gospel to all. The order of creation (Gen 3:16) manifests the role of motherhood entrusted by God to the married woman, even if it is necessary, naturally, that she receive the Gospel in order to become a believer who lives in the light of the Lord.
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
