Memory of St. Clare of Assisi (1193-1253), disciple of St. Francis, on the way to poverty and evangelic simplicity. Read more
Memory of St. Clare of Assisi (1193-1253), disciple of St. Francis, on the way to poverty and evangelic simplicity.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
1 John 2, 28-3,3
Therefore remain in him now, children, so that when he appears we may be fearless, and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.
If you know that he is upright you must recognise that everyone whose life is upright is a child of his.
You must see what great love the Father has lavished on us by letting us be called God's children -- which is what we are! The reason why the world does not acknowledge us is that it did not acknowledge him.
My dear friends, we are already God's children, but what we shall be in the future has not yet been revealed. We are well aware that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he really is.
Whoever treasures this hope of him purifies himself, to be as pure as he is.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
John again exhorts the disciples to "abide" in Jesus. This is a theme dear to the apostle whom "Jesus loved," and it often appears in the pages of his gospel, as well as in this letter. Communion with Christ is a specific aspect of Christian love. John reassures the Christians that if they "abide" in Jesus they have nothing to fear, not even the final judgment (the "parusia" in Greek); they are already saved because they have been "born of him." In the Prologue to the Gospel we read, "But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave the power to become the children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God."(Jn 1:12-13). We are therefore children of God not only in name but in reality if we abide in Jesus, the firstborn Son. The apostle knows well that here we are entering into the heart of the mystery of God and urges us to contemplate this mystery, "See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are." The love of God, which saves us from sin and death, makes Christians "incomprehensible" to the selfish and violent mentality of this world. Especially today being used to individualism and doing things by ourselves, together with a false idea of freedom, leads to reject the link with the Lord and with others. The sense of self-sufficiency and all-mightiness makes people in fact void of communion with God and others. There is a dimension of the Gospel that is irreducibly foreign to the world that demands that the disciples of Jesus give heroic witness to their faith. And in the history of the Church, there has never been a lack of Christians who would witness to such heroic love that they were even willing to shed their own blood. The time will come when love’s victory will be revealed, and Christians, who now see as if in a mirror, will see the Lord "face to face" as Paul says to the Corinthians (1 Cor 13:12).
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
