Memory of St. Benedict (547), father of western monks and their guide through the rule that carries his name. Read more
Memory of St. Benedict (547), father of western monks and their guide through the rule that carries his name.
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
John 15, 1-8
I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.
Every branch in me that bears no fruit he cuts away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes to make it bear even more.
You are clean already, by means of the word that I have spoken to you.
Remain in me, as I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself, unless it remains part of the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.
I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, with me in him, bears fruit in plenty; for cut off from me you can do nothing.
Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a branch -- and withers; these branches are collected and thrown on the fire and are burnt.
If you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for whatever you please and you will get it.
It is to the glory of my Father that you should bear much fruit and be my disciples.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Church today remembers Saint Benedict of Nursia, the father of Western monasticism. He came to Rome to finish his studies but then left the city in order to withdraw to more remote places near Subiaco: he wanted to devote his entire life to God. Surrounded by several disciples, he decided to go to Montecassino, where he founded a new monastery and wrote the famous Rule in which he demonstrates his extraordinary human and Christian wisdom. The Rule, in effect, becomes an essential reference point for all western monasticism. He writes in the prologue: “We must constitute a school of divine service ... As one makes progress in the life of conversion and faith, one runs in the way of the commandments with a heart widened with the inexpressible sweetness of love.” What Benedict established is not only valid for those who follow the monastic life, but also for those who live daily life in the world. We all have need of a discipline, therefore of a rule which prevents us from being submerged only in daily life forgetting the Lord, the hearing of his Word, prayer and the commitment to change the world. Through this practice the spiritual man or woman grows within us. We need to be connected to the vine that is Jesus, as we read in the Gospel. Jesus continues to say also to us: “I am the vine, you are the branches,” so that we may understand the kind of link there should be between him and us. A branch lives and bears fruit only if it abides in the vine. If it was cut, it would dry and die. Abiding in the vine is therefore essential for the branches. But this does not occur by chance. We need a discipline, a rule that help us not to be overwhelmed by the vertiginous rhythms of daily life.
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
