Memory of St. Benedict (+547), father of western monks and their guide through the rule that carries his name Read more
Memory of St. Benedict (+547), father of western monks and their guide through the rule that carries his name
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
1 Peter 1, 22-25; 2,1-3
Since by your obedience to the truth you have purified yourselves so that you can experience the genuine love of brothers, love each other intensely from the heart;
for your new birth was not from any perishable seed but from imperishable seed, the living and enduring Word of God.
For all humanity is grass, and all its beauty like the wild flower's. As grass withers, the flower fades,
but the Word of the Lord remains for ever. And this Word is the Good News that has been brought to you.
Rid yourselves, then, of all spite, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and carping criticism.
Like new-born babies all your longing should be for milk -- the unadulterated spiritual milk -- which will help you to grow up to salvation,
at any rate if you have tasted that the Lord is good .
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The apostle Peter, with a fourth exhortation, invites the disciples to "obedience to the truth", that is, to a "true obedience" to the Gospel, to its observance "without additions" as Saint Francis of Assisi said. Obedience to the Gospel is made real by neighbourly love, by the birth of a community, that is, brothers and sisters who love one another. Fraternal love is not a question of character but it is the fruit of listening to the Gospel. Just as the people of Israel were born as though from the law of Mount Sinai, now the Gospel gives birth to the new people of the disciples of Jesus. This is why the apostle says, "You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God." Indeed, the Word of God is that "imperishable seed" that, planted in the heart of believers, makes them reborn to a new life, forming them into a community of brothers and sisters. Aware of the fragility of our human condition we entrust ourselves to it like the rock on which we build our life. This Word is efficacious and never fails: it "endures forever," Peter reminds us. From it gushes forth the strength that renders the disciples capable of loving each other, and from it they are sustained and preserved in a true and lasting fraternity. The author presents Christian life as a new birth, fruit of the Word of God that is also the milk with which we nourish ourselves in order to grow. Christians should continuously take nourishment from its maternal milk. The apostle, comparing the new people to a family, exhorts the disciples to live like new-born babies, that is like babies who trustingly abandon themselves in the hands of their mother, the Church. The indispensable discipleship to the Gospel always renders Christians children of the Church, thus always children in need of the good and caring mother that is the Church. This spiritual nourishment changes us from individuals into a "we", the we of the Church that frees us from the individualism to which the world accustoms us. Perhaps St. Augustine took these words of Peter to create the image of the believer who is invited to read the scripture on the lap of the mother Church. This is how we can grow and become strong in love. It is from the Gospel love that the strength comes to depose malice, envy and slander, which result from the wicked mentality of this world.
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
