Memory of St. Anthony of the caves of Kiev (1073). Father of Russian monasticism, with St. Theodosius he is considered the founder of the monastery of the caves. Read more
Memory of St. Anthony of the caves of Kiev (1073). Father of Russian monasticism, with St. Theodosius he is considered the founder of the monastery of the caves.
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
Jeremiah 8, 14-23
Why are we sitting still? Mobilise! Take to the fortified towns and there fall silent, since Yahweh our God means to silence us by giving us poisoned water to drink because we have sinned against him.
We are hoping for peace -- no good came of it! For the time of healing -- nothing but terror!
From Dan you can hear the snorting of his horses; at the neighing of his stallions the whole country quakes; they are coming to devour the country and its contents, the town and those that live in it.
Yes, now I am sending you poisonous snakes against which no charm exists; and they will bite you, Yahweh declares.
Incurable sorrow overtakes me, my heart fails me.
Hark, from the daughter of my people the cry for help, ringing far and wide throughout the land! 'Is Yahweh no longer in Zion, her King no longer there?' (Why have they provoked me with their idols, with their futile foreign gods?)
'Harvest is over, summer at an end, and we have not been saved!'
The wound of the daughter of my people wounds me too, all looks dark to me, terror grips me.
Is there no balm in Gilead any more? Is no doctor there? Then why is there no progress in the cure of the daughter of my people?
Who will turn my head into a fountain, and my eyes into a spring of tears, that I can weep day and night over the slain of the daughter of my people?
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
What kind of answers can we give when we are in trouble and threatened by death? Israel’s instinct is to blame God for their misfortune: “Gather together, let us go into the fortified cities and perish there; for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish.” How many times have we also blamed God for a difficult time in our lives, a sudden death, or an illness? Perhaps we would have been able to join in Israel’s words: “We look for peace, but find no good, for a time of healing, but there is terror instead.” It is easy and almost instinctive to complain and blame other people for the bad things that happen to us. Of course, we are not responsible for the world’s evil, but we should question ourselves about it. Sometimes the Bible seems to attribute it to God. In fact, from the biblical perspective, everything is connected to God, even if in the first chapters of Genesis it is made very clear that evil comes from the evil one and from human sin, because God’s will is only good. We do not have all the answers. The presence of evil is indeed a mystery, inside of which many causes are interwoven. The painful story of Job teaches that God is not far off when we experience evil, even if he seems to permit it to happen. It is Job who does not recognize God’s presence or see him by his side. In the words of the prophet we hear the power of evil in the world, the cries of many men and women who suffer: “My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick. Hark, the cry of my poor people from far and wide in the land: Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not in her?’” We also hear the cries of pain of many who suffer and seem abandoned even by God, so great is their suffering. Sometimes we struggle to find a remedy, but it is not impossible, even if this fills us with sadness. No, God has not abandoned any evil. He hears the cry of the poor, as he listened to his people in slavery in Egypt.
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
