Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Luke 11, 29-32
The crowds got even bigger and he addressed them, 'This is an evil generation; it is asking for a sign. The only sign it will be given is the sign of Jonah.
For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of man be a sign to this generation.
On Judgement Day the Queen of the South will stand up against the people of this generation and be their condemnation, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, look, there is something greater than Solomon here.
On Judgement Day the men of Nineveh will appear against this generation and be its condemnation, because when Jonah preached they repented; and, look, there is something greater than Jonah here.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Jesus is surrounded by many people needing true words to be saved from fears and anguishes. Still, today, many people search for safety and security, an obviously legitimate search. But it is often carried on by unreasonable or even completely wrong means. For instance, blaming the poor and those alone to be the causes of insecurity or discomfort is a mistake. There are causes and they should be searched for carefully. Maybe though realizing it is not easy -- insecurity is rooted in the radical loneliness of us all. Yes, we are alone, we feel we are not loved; therefore a sense of being lost surrounds us inside and out. This deep loneliness is exacerbated by a wicked instinct that leads each of us to think only about ourselves and not to look at others. Moreover, it is true that today large cities - like the great Nineveh - have made life more difficult for everyone. Life has become tougher and more violent, especially for the poorest. Not infrequently the convulsive rhythms of our cities are a source of physical and mental imbalances, poverty and marginalization, despair and anguish. For this it is easy to think that some outside force or something miraculous can give us security. Hence the search for a “sign” of something that in an almost magical way may free us from anxiety. But there are no magical escapes or esoteric paths to follow. In truth, the streets and squares of our cities need to be again visited by the preaching of the Gospel, as Jonah who preached repentance and conversion to Nineveh. And the Gospel is much more precious than Salomon’s wisdom and much stronger than Jonah’s preaching. The Gospel is the true power we have in our hands to humanize our cities, to give a heart to the drought of life that generates conflicts and violence, to defeat evil with good. We Christians have the great responsibility of communicating and of living the Gospel so that our cities may be saved from despair and from violence, so that our generation may be preserved from selfishness. Selfishness leads us to take refuge in comforting rituals and practices, which are not the real answer to the need for salvation and love of everyone.
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
