We remember Yaguine and Fodé, two boys 15 an d14 years old from Guinea Conakry, who died because of cold in 1999 while they we trying to fly to study in Europe hidden in the cargo hold of an airplane Read more
We remember Yaguine and Fodé, two boys 15 an d14 years old from Guinea Conakry, who died because of cold in 1999 while they we trying to fly to study in Europe hidden in the cargo hold of an airplane
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
2 Peter 3, 1-7
My dear friends, this is the second letter I have written to you, trying to awaken in you by my reminders an unclouded understanding.
Remember what was said in the past by the holy prophets and the command of the Lord and Saviour given by your apostles.
First of all, do not forget that in the final days there will come sarcastic scoffers whose life is ruled by their passions.
'What has happened to the promise of his coming?' they will say, 'Since our Fathers died everything has gone on just as it has since the beginning of creation!'
They deliberately ignore the fact that long ago there were the heavens and the earth, formed out of water and through water by the Word of God,
and that it was through these same factors that the world of those days was destroyed by the floodwaters.
It is the same Word which is reserving the present heavens and earth for fire, keeping them till the Day of Judgement and of the destruction of sinners.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The apostle is concerned about the dangers that hang over the life of the Christian communities. This is the reason why he sends them a second letter. It is not enough to listen to the preaching of the Gospel only once. Rather, it is necessary to continue to nourish ourselves daily with the bread that sustains the life of every believer and community. Peter knows very well that this is necessary: "To arouse your sincere intention by reminding you that you should remember the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets." Indeed, the false prophets did not desist from pressuring the community to no longer believe in the Word of the prophets. The example they used to undermine the apostolic preaching was the assertion that the foretold return of Christ had not come true. With this accusation they sought to undermine the apostolic preaching, calling it deceitful, and labelled the Gospel irrelevant. They said: "Where is the promise of his coming? From the day since our ancestors died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." We can still hear such objections today, as when one claims that the Gospel has not changed anything at all and that everything remains the same and will always be the same. Such notions lead people to abandon the Gospel or at least not to listen to it as a strong and efficacious word, and at the same time strengthen and consolidate egoism and attention only to oneself. Peter, instead, calls the believers to remember the strength of the Word of God: from it, all of creation flowed, and still remains preserved by it. Just the beginning of the Bible reminds us that everything came to light thanks to the efficacious strength of the Word of God. Ten times we read, "God said." And everything was made according to His word. Peter reminds believers to consider the entire Biblical tradition and to see, through it, the power of the Word that came from the mouth 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
