The Jews celebrate the feast of Shavuot (Pentecost). Read more
The Jews celebrate the feast of Shavuot (Pentecost).
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Colossians 1, 24-29
It makes me happy to be suffering for you now, and in my own body to make up all the hardships that still have to be undergone by Christ for the sake of his body, the Church,
of which I was made a servant with the responsibility towards you that God gave to me, that of completing God's message,
the message which was a mystery hidden for generations and centuries and has now been revealed to his holy people.
It was God's purpose to reveal to them how rich is the glory of this mystery among the gentiles; it is Christ among you, your hope of glory:
this is the Christ we are proclaiming, admonishing and instructing everyone in all wisdom, to make everyone perfect in Christ.
And it is for this reason that I labour, striving with his energy which works in me mightily.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Paul, who is well aware of the link between love and the cross, writes to the Colossians about the happiness he feels at the suffering he is experiencing on their behalf. It is true: none of our pain is lost; no suffering is in vain, especially when it comes because of pastoral ministry: it is all gathered together in the cup of Christ’s suffering on the cross. Paul reveals the deep meaning that is hidden in the suffering of a disciple: it is the completion in his own flesh of what is lacking in Christ’s suffering. When the believer experiences his or her own limitations and so is made similar to Christ, he or she knows that, even in suffering, the power of the Risen One is at work. This is why even pain can be a source of happiness and serenity, because it can become an occasion for communion and grace: believers are in communion with each other in suffering and even in death. The apostle knows that he has to conform himself to Christ and that he has to suffer trials and hostility in order to bring the Gospel to women and men. Besides, he cannot refuse his obligation to preach the Gospel, because it is there that God reveals his plan of love for humanity. He received from God himself the mission “to make the word of God fully known.” With this last statement, Paul sheds light on what pastoral ministry means: to sow the Word of God in the hearts of believers so that we can grow according to the image of Christ. This is how we should understand what it means to be a “servant” of the Gospel. And Paul does not hesitate to call the Word of God a “mystery”: in it is present the very love of God revealed to his “saints” so that they may communicate it in turn to all of humanity. The task for the disciples of every age is, therefore, not just to communicate the happy proclamation of Christ in an abstract way, but to communicate the Gospel so that it touches the heart of those who listen and they convert. The pastor has the task of exhorting, teaching, and accompanying every believer so that he or she may know how to make the Word of God grow and bear fruit in his or her heart and grow towards perfection. It is hard labour, which Paul compares to a wearying struggle. But it is the only way for the seed to bear fruit. This is the true meaning of the Church’s pastoral mission in the world. Paul is right to insist on the universal scope of the Gospel: “everyone” is called to live in Christ, to find in him the meaning of his or her own life and so to reach perfection, that is, salvation.
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
