Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Romans 13, 8-14
The only thing you should owe to anyone is love for one another, for to love the other person is to fulfil the law.
All these: You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet, and all the other commandments that there are, are summed up in this single phrase: You must love your neighbour as yourself.
Love can cause no harm to your neighbour, and so love is the fulfilment of the Law.
Besides, you know the time has come; the moment is here for you to stop sleeping and wake up, because by now our salvation is nearer than when we first began to believe.
The night is nearly over, daylight is on the way; so let us throw off everything that belongs to the darkness and equip ourselves for the light.
Let us live decently, as in the light of day; with no orgies or drunkenness, no promiscuity or licentiousness, and no wrangling or jealousy.
Let your armour be the Lord Jesus Christ, and stop worrying about how your disordered natural inclinations may be fulfilled.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Even if a Christian were to accomplish everything, one debt would remain: the debt of mutual love. We are all debtors of love towards each other. This means that other people have a right to our love, our attention, and our presence. This truth represents the radical defeat of philautia, that love for ourselves is the root of every sin. After Jesus gave the example of loving men and women to the point of giving his life for their salvation, his disciples cannot distance themselves from their teacher’s position. This is why the apostle can speak of a debt of love. Christian love must be completely and freely given to all. And it is obvious that a love this radical does not come from us: it is not the fruit of our efforts, but something we can only receive from on high. By practicing this love we carry out the “living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” that Paul just called us to. The urgency of love comes from the hour that is approaching. The apostle seems to be saying that this is the time to love. And when we look at the gravity and seriousness of this new millennium, we understand how urgent it is for Christians to testify to love as the only way for the world to obtain salvation. Faced with the growth of hatred and violence, faced with the spread of terrorism and war, Christian communities need to abandon all distractions and superficiality in order to communicate to the world the primacy of love. The way to peace is to make love prevail. The light of a new day needs to follow the night of violence, a new day in which peace and the works of justices proclaim to all the salvation that the Lord pours out over us.
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
