Prayer for the unity of the Churches. Particular memory of the Orthodox Churches. Read more
Prayer for the unity of the Churches. Particular memory of the Orthodox Churches.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Romans 8, 1-13
Thus, condemnation will never come to those who are in Christ Jesus,
because the law of the Spirit which gives life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.
What the Law could not do because of the weakness of human nature, God did, sending his own Son in the same human nature as any sinner to be a sacrifice for sin, and condemning sin in that human nature.
This was so that the Law's requirements might be fully satisfied in us as we direct our lives not by our natural inclinations but by the Spirit.
Those who are living by their natural inclinations have their minds on the things human nature desires; those who live in the Spirit have their minds on spiritual things.
And human nature has nothing to look forward to but death, while the Spirit looks forward to life and peace,
because the outlook of disordered human nature is opposed to God, since it does not submit to God's Law, and indeed it cannot,
and those who live by their natural inclinations can never be pleasing to God.
You, however, live not by your natural inclinations, but by the Spirit, since the Spirit of God has made a home in you. Indeed, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
But when Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is alive because you have been justified;
and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead has made his home in you, then he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.
So then, my brothers, we have no obligation to human nature to be dominated by it.
If you do live in that way, you are doomed to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the habits originating in the body, you will have life.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Those who welcome Jesus into their lives are radically freed from sin and its slavery. That is why the apostle can say, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Believers find themselves in a new condition; they are new men and women guided by a renewed strength, the strength of the love poured out in their hearts by God himself. Paul repeats, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” This affirmation of the centrality of the Spirit of God dominates this passage of the letter to the Romans. The apostle wants to draw as much attention as he can to the new creation in which the believer is immersed. Those who welcome the Spirit of Christ can no longer follow the desires of the flesh, which “naturally” lead to toward sin and death. Something like a new orientation is placed in the believer, a new spiritual passion, new feelings, and so new perspectives to live for and carry out. It is the Spirit that takes possession of believers’ lives and pushes them to desire new things: “To set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace,” Paul notes. Our mind is set on these things to the degree to which the Spirit dwells within us. Christians recognize the Sprit as the thing that sustains and upholds their interior lives and spiritual experiences. Faithfulness to the Spirit is the key to being able to live out the Gospel without restrictions.
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
