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 23, 1-8
'Disaster for the shepherds who lose and scatter the sheep of my pasture, Yahweh declares.
This, therefore, is what Yahweh, God of Israel, says about the shepherds who shepherd my people, "You have scattered my flock, you have driven them away and have not taken care of them. Right, I shall take care of you for your misdeeds, Yahweh declares!
But the remnant of my flock I myself shall gather from all the countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds; they will be fruitful and increase in numbers.
For them I shall raise up shepherds to shepherd them and pasture them. No fear, no terror for them any more; not one shall be lost, Yahweh declares!
Look, the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when I shall raise an upright Branch for David; he will reign as king and be wise, doing what is just and upright in the country.
In his days Judah will triumph and Israel live in safety. And this is the name he will be called, 'Yahweh-is-our-Saving-Justice.' "
'So, look, the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when people will no longer say, "As Yahweh lives who brought the Israelites out of Egypt,"
but, "As Yahweh lives who led back and brought home the offspring of the House of Israel from the land of the north and all the countries to which he had driven them, to live on their own soil." '
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” These are harsh words against the leaders of Israel, who no longer lead the flocks the Lord has entrusted to them. They have forgotten about the people of God and only care for themselves. It seems that the people bother them, they are so distant. No longer aware of their responsibility to be shepherds, they have learned to do evil. And, without anyone to lead them, the sheep of the flock are walking towards destruction. We might wonder whether it is ever possible for someone to change his or her feelings and give up his or her most precious treasure. When wickedness take a hold of life and evil becomes a habit and when selfishness knows no bounds shepherds become hired hands. Those who should be acting for the good of all and, in particular, the most vulnerable, choose to be more concerned with themselves than the good of others. Then it is the Lord who intervenes and takes up the defence of the poor and the needy, that part of the flock that suffers from severe wounds and is afflicted by so much pain but has no one to lead it. Mercy is the ever-new name of the Lord, who takes up the sheep who are scattered and alone. He is the one who raises up new shepherds who follow his heart and lead the sheep to pasture, loving them with a steady and caring love. These new shepherds are friends of the poor who let any no one get lost, whether by falling prey to fear or dismay or by being left without any consolation. Like the Lord’s people, the poor are often exiled, left as foreigners in their own land. These new shepherds, led by the righteous stem, the Messiah-King who establishes absolute justice and repairs all rejection, will be able to grant rest to the most vulnerable and offer them peace and happiness. The Lord Jesus calls his disciples and makes them defenders of the poor, and he makes this one of the clearest signs of the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth.
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
