February 7, 1968 commemorates the beginning of the Community of Sant'Egidio. A group of students from a Roman high school started gathering around the Gospel and loving the poor. Thanksgiving to the Lord for the gift of the Community Read more
February 7, 1968 commemorates the beginning of the Community of Sant’Egidio. A group of students from a Roman high school started gathering around the Gospel and loving the poor. Thanksgiving to the Lord for the gift of the Community
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Matthew 11, 25-30
At that time Jesus exclaimed, 'I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to little children.
Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do.
Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
'Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest.
Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Today we remember the anniversary of the Community of Sant’Egidio. Our first words are words of thanksgiving to the Lord. In fact, it is Jesus himself who “blesses” the Father because the Gospel has once again been “revealed to infants.” This is not only true because the Community was born through the work of a young high school student, Andrea Riccardi, but also because one of the Community’s original insights was that we are all “children” of the Gospel, that is, part of those “infants” to whom the very mystery of God has been revealed. In this sense, the Community is a gift that God has given to its members, and, through them, to the Church and the world. At the heart of the Community rests a strong, simple, and basic insight: the call to live out the Gospel, without additions. It is from the Gospel from continuously listening to the Word of God that the Community is constantly reborn. The story of Sant’Egidio is not just a story of commitment, but mostly a story of prayer, of welcoming the Word of God, and of spiritual life. Jesus’ words of thanks are echoed by us all: “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants.” And through these “infants” the Gospel has spread in the Community’s case from Rome to the world, always bringing together prayer and love for the poor. Everywhere it exists, the Community tries to live out a globalisation of love that abolishes boundaries and divisions and creates a great people made up of the poor and the humble, allied in helping each other follow the Lord. Today’s words of thanks are for the great help we have received from the Lord, who has sustained us in our daily struggles, helping us to shoulder a load of spiritual and material activities and concern for many situations. It is with joy that we have been able to experience the truth in Jesus’ words, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” What might seem like a weight and a burden is instead an experience of sweetness and gentleness for those who believe and love. The era opening before us promises to be full of challenges and responsibilities, but the certainty of the sweetness of the Lord’s help sustains each one of us as we try to live according to the way of the Gospel with trust and love.
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
