Memory of St. Anselm (1033-1109), a Benedictine monk and bishop of Canterbury, who suffered exile for his love for the Church. Read more
Memory of St. Anselm (1033-1109), a Benedictine monk and bishop of Canterbury, who suffered exile for his love for the Church.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Titus 2, 11-15
You see, God's grace has been revealed to save the whole human race;
it has taught us that we should give up everything contrary to true religion and all our worldly passions; we must be self-restrained and live upright and religious lives in this present world,
waiting in hope for the blessing which will come with the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Christ Jesus.
He offered himself for us in order to ransom us from all our faults and to purify a people to be his very own and eager to do good.
This is what you must say, encouraging or arguing with full authority; no one should despise you.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Wanting to indicate what kind of strength makes Christians exemplary, Paul mentions a hymn to God’s grace, the bearer of salvation that at the established time was manifested in Jesus Christ. In Jesus, God’s own mercy appeared; in Jesus, God offers salvation to all men and women, with no exceptions. The evangelist John writes, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life" (Jn 3:16). When the Word became incarnate, salvation came into the world, that is, liberation from death and access to a full life for all men and women, no matter their language, ethnicity, or nation. God’s unimaginable love pushes us to choose, either to open ourselves to love or, sadly, to close ourselves off from it. We cannot remain in uncertainty or in unworkable neutrality. The grace that God gives through the Son drives those who receive it towards a radical break with impiety and selfish instincts. In the letter to the Romans, the apostle writes, "Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life" (Rom 6:4), as we wait for the Lord’s final return. The hope for eternal life is an essential part of Christian life (1 Cor 13:13). Paul talks about it continuously and also considers this mystery a central dimension of Christian life. Freed from sin and sanctified and united in Christ, the disciples of Jesus are called to manifest this lofty vocation and great dignity through their good works. This is the mystery that Titus has to preach to all those he meets. And he has to preach it with resolve. He may still be young (2:7) like Timothy (1 Tim 4:12), but Paul, on his part, warns the community of Crete not to scorn Titus. Age and social rank do not count in the Christian community; the only thing that counts is the authority of the mission, and as Jesus says, "Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me" (Lk 10:l6).
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
