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 4, 19-5,4
Let us love, then, because he first loved us.
Anyone who says 'I love God' and hates his brother, is a liar, since whoever does not love the brother whom he can see cannot love God whom he has not seen.
Indeed this is the commandment we have received from him, that whoever loves God, must also love his brother.
Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God, and whoever loves the father loves the son.
In this way we know that we love God's children, when we love God and keep his commandments.
This is what the love of God is: keeping his commandments. Nor are his commandments burdensome,
because every child of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world -- our faith.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Once again, the apostle insists that we can love because God loved us first, “We love, because He first loved us.” Writing to Christians, John says that it is impossible to truly love without having understood and accepted, even just a little, the love of God. We all know from personal experience how deeply rooted self-love is, our preoccupation with our own ego. God's love for us is the root and model of our love, both our love for each other and our love for God. They are not two loves, but one indivisible love. It is not an abstract love. Love is always concrete. This is why “Those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.” The love of God always passes through the love of our neighbour, especially the poorest and the weakest. Indeed all Scripture is infused with this conviction: the inseparability of love towards God and neighbour. Jesus is the greatest example. Love for the Father and love for men and women, in particular for the poor, constituted the substance of his days. No one is excluded from the horizon of his love, even enemies and persecutors, as the Gospels repeatedly reaffirm. It is not a burdensome command; it is certainly challenging, but it is the way which alone can bring peace into the lives of people. John explains further: “Those who say, I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars.” St. Augustine says: “If you want to see God, the right idea is available to you: God is love. What is the face of love? What form, what stature, what feet and hands? No one can say. However, it has feet that lead to church; it has hands that give to the poor; it has eyes with which one comes to know the one who is in need. “ The real face of love is Jesus. Those who believe in him, that is, those who welcome him as Master and Saviour and follow him, walk in the ways of God and keep his commandments. This is the faith that conquers the world.
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
