Memory of the Presentation of the Mother of the Lord at the Temple. This feast, born in Jerusalem and celebrated in both the East and the West, remembers both the ancient temple and how Mary offered her life to the Lord. Read more
Memory of the Presentation of the Mother of the Lord at the Temple. This feast, born in Jerusalem and celebrated in both the East and the West, remembers both the ancient temple and how Mary offered her life to the Lord.
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
Mark 3, 31-35
Now his mother and his brothers arrived and, standing outside, sent in a message asking for him.
A crowd was sitting round him at the time the message was passed to him, 'Look, your mother and brothers and sisters are outside asking for you.'
He replied, 'Who are my mother and my brothers?'
And looking at those sitting in a circle round him, he said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers.
Anyone who does the will of God, that person is my brother and sister and mother.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The feast of the Presentation of Mary at the temple is linked to the dedication of the New Church of Saint Mary built near the temple in Jerusalem in the year 453. Mary, the “Theotokos” (Mother of God), is the true temple in which the one sacrifice pleasing to God is offered. With this memory we welcome the tradition of the apocryphal gospel of James that tells of Mary’s consecration to God as an adolescent. It is a pious tradition that reminds us of the importance of bringing to God the many adolescents of today who are not only removed from the beautiful things of life but even from life itself. We need to make every effort to protect young people so that, removed from a society that has them grow up at the school of selfishness and vanity, they can instead grow up at the school of the Gospel. The evangelist Mark reports a Gospel scene that can remind us of the urgency of placing ourselves at Jesus’ school. It is a passage that might seem harsh towards the Mother of Jesus, but in truth it is the path that Mary has always followed. It is written that Jesus is at home and many people are crowding around him to listen to him. His relatives, including his mother, arrive and call for him. The relatives stay “outside,” the evangelist writes, indicating more than a spatial distance. Only those who are “inside” and listen to his word, Jesus says, are his true family. The Christian community is always born from the Word of God and it lives on listening to it. We all need to be careful not to give in to the temptation of considering ourselves Jesus’ “relatives”, that is, of thinking we don’t need to gather around him to listen to him, so much has our access to him has become “natural” and taken for granted. Basically, it is not enough to belong to the Christian group to be salved. Every day we need to go “inside” the community to listen to the Gospel as the Church communicates it. One is not a disciple once and for all! We need to listen to the Gospel every day and welcome it into our hearts.
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
