Memory of St. Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (today in Algeria) and a doctor of the Church. Read more
Memory of St. Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (today in Algeria) and a doctor of the Church.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
3 John 1, 1-8
From the Elder: greetings to my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in truth.
My dear friend, I hope everything is going happily with you and that you are as well physically as you are spiritually.
It was a great joy to me when some brothers came and told of your faithfulness to the truth, and of your life in the truth.
It is always my greatest joy to hear that my children are living according to the truth.
My dear friend, you have done loyal work in helping these brothers, even though they were strangers to you.
They are a proof to the whole Church of your love and it would be a kindness if you could help them on their journey as God would approve.
It was entirely for the sake of the name that they set out, without depending on the non-believers for anything:
it is our duty to welcome people of this sort and contribute our share to their work for the truth.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Repeating the formula typical of John, which he used before in his second letter, the "presbyter" opens his letter with a salutation to Gaius, who he "loves in truth." He wishes him good health "just as well as it is well with your soul" (v. 2). The righteous behaviour of Gaius is due to none other than his continuing to "walk in the truth" (v. 3). The theme of "truth" returns, not understood as complex abstract principles in which to believe, but as the very mystery of God made manifest in history-that is to say, the mystery of Jesus Christ dead and risen who continues to live in his Church. The community’s faithfulness in permanently abiding in this mystery is the reason for the joy of the "elder": "I have no greater joy than this, to hear that my children are walking in the truth" (v. 4). His joy is the joy of a pastor who sees his community walking along the ways of the Gospel. We can compare it to the joy Jesus felt when he welcomed the disciples who had returned from their first mission. The same jubilation is connected to the welcoming the Christian communities extended to the first missionaries of the Gospel. We are at the beginning of the ministry of preaching the Gospel and it is significant that the author draws attention to the importance of welcoming the missionaries. By welcoming the missionaries, Christian fraternity reveals itself and dispels the distinction between foreigners and acquaintances, as clearly appears through Jesus’ words. The Gospel makes everyone, even those who are foreigners or who live far away, our brothers and sisters. This new perspective invites Christians to assist and welcome as our brothers and sisters those who, having left behind their homes, go out to communicate the Gospel wherever the Lord sends them. Welcoming them with care and attention does not simply mean doing a good deed, but participating in the very mission of the Church, as we note in the Letter: "Therefore we ought to support such people, so that we may become co-workers with the truth." (v. 8) Welcoming makes us participate in the design of God who sent His Son to save the world. Assistance given in any way to those who communicate the Gospel makes us co-workers in the same ministry. In this way the universality of the Church that welcomes foreigners as brothers and sisters is also manifested.
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
