Memory of Laurindo and Madora, young Mozambicans who died because of the war. With them we remember all of the young people killed because of conflict and the violence of humanity. Read more
Memory of Laurindo and Madora, young Mozambicans who died because of the war. With them we remember all of the young people killed because of conflict and the violence of humanity.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Glory to God in the highest
and peace on earth to the people he loves.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
1 John 2, 12-17
I am writing to you, children, because your sins have been forgiven through his name.
I am writing to you, fathers, because you have come to know the One who has existed since the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, because you have overcome the Evil One.
I have written to you, children, because you have come to know the Father. I have written to you, parents, because you have come to know the One who has existed since the beginning. I have written to you, young people, because you are strong, and God's word remains in you, and you have overcome the Evil One.
Do not love the world or what is in the world. If anyone does love the world, the love of the Father finds no place in him,
because everything there is in the world -- disordered bodily desires, disordered desires of the eyes, pride in possession -- is not from the Father but is from the world.
And the world, with all its disordered desires, is passing away. But whoever does the will of God remains for ever.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
With a solemn, three-part speech, the apostle John addresses all believers. He calls them “children,” because they were born into the faith through him, but also “fathers,” because they must in turn generate new believers for the Church, and “young people,” that is, strong, because by letting the Word of God abide in them they have overcome the power of the evil one. John invites believers not to love the world or the things of the world because in doing so they would stray from the love of God. In the language of John, the world does not simply refer to creation; it is a reference to the earthly realm in so far as it is subjugated to the power of the evil one (see Jn 12:31) and therefore opposed to the kingdom of God, which is a kingdom of love and peace. Here the opposition outlined by Jesus is echoed: “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth” (Mt 6:24). Believers must take care not to let themselves be overwhelmed by the power of the evil one, which takes root in the heart through the desires of the flesh that inevitably lead to evil. The apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians: “Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh “(Gal 5:16-17). John explains this by writing that the desires of the flesh are manifested in the “the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches.” Those who let themselves by guided by these instincts stray from God and are swept away by the impermanence of the world. The world is passing away, John reminds his readers, just as Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “The present form of this world is passing away” (1 Cor 7:31). Those who do the will of God instead “live forever,” that is, live in 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
