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
1 Corinthians 1, 1-9
Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and Sosthenes, our brother,
to the church of God in Corinth, to those who have been consecrated in Christ Jesus and called to be God's holy people, with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord as well as ours.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I am continually thanking God about you, for the grace of God which you have been given in Christ Jesus;
in him you have been richly endowed in every kind of utterance and knowledge;
so firmly has witness to Christ taken root in you.
And so you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed;
he will continue to give you strength till the very end, so that you will be irreproachable on the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You can rely on God, who has called you to be partners with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Paul, the apostle, together with Sosthenes, to obey Jesus' command to go “two by two,” sends a letter to the “church of God that is in Corinth.” Certainly in Corinth the word “ecclesia,” was known: it indicated the meeting of the inhabitants of a city who enjoyed full citizenship rights. By calling the Christians of Corinth “Church of God” Paul wanted to make it clear that they were an assembly, a community, gathered by God in the city of Corinth. Thus there is a link between the Church and the city. In fact, beyond the number of believers, they have before them the horizon of the city. It is to the city that they must bear witness to the Gospel. But they are not an island, a self-sufficient group that refers only to itself. God has chosen them and made them “saints,” that is “separate,” to unite “all those who lived in every place the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The local community, therefore, can not do without the other communities around the world. Before the eyes of Paul, the great mystery of the people that the Lord has gathered from every part of the earth appears. It is the meaning of that universality - today we would call it globalization the origin of which is in the Christian faith. This does not diminish the attention to the community of Corinth. Paul, indeed, thanks the Lord for the progress it has made. His words allow us to understand that the generosity of the response to the Gospel by the Corinthians corresponds to the generosity with which the Lord has bestowed his gifts upon them: “The testimony of Christ has been strengthened among youso that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift.” The community of Corinth did not shut off or become lukewarm, but it was “rich” of love. The reason is explained by the Apostle: they were “firm” in “communion” with Jesus. Jesus had told his disciples: “If you remain in me, you will bear much fruit.”
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
