Prayer for the unity of the Churches. Particular memory of the Churches and ecclesial communities (Lutheran, Reformed, Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal). Read more
Prayer for the unity of the Churches. Particular memory of the Churches and ecclesial communities (Lutheran, Reformed, Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal).
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Hebrews 7, 25-8,6
It follows, then, that his power to save those who come to God through him is absolute, since he lives for ever to intercede for them.
Such is the high priest that met our need, holy, innocent and uncontaminated, set apart from sinners, and raised up above the heavens;
he has no need to offer sacrifices every day, as the high priests do, first for their own sins and only then for those of the people; this he did once and for all by offering himself.
The Law appoints high priests who are men subject to weakness; but the promise on oath, which came after the Law, appointed the Son who is made perfect for ever.
The principal point of all that we have said is that we have a high priest of exactly this kind. He has taken his seat at the right of the throne of divine Majesty in the heavens,
and he is the minister of the sanctuary and of the true Tent which the Lord, and not any man, set up.
Every high priest is constituted to offer gifts and sacrifices, and so this one too must have something to offer.
In fact, if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are others who make the offerings laid down by the Law,
though these maintain the service only of a model or a reflection of the heavenly realities; just as Moses, when he had the Tent to build, was warned by God who said: See that you work to the design that was shown you on the mountain.
As it is, he has been given a ministry as far superior as is the covenant of which he is the mediator, which is founded on better promises.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This passage again explains the meaning of the High Priesthood of Christ: “Unlike the other high priests, he has no need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for those of the people; this he did once for all when he offered himself.” We are at the heart of the Christian faith: Jesus offered his life for us as an innocent victim and a unique sacrifice, through which he established himself as the mediator between God and humanity. Through him we can be forgiven and enter into communion with God, living in a covenant with Him. With his death and resurrection, Jesus began a new time and a new covenant through his blood poured out for us. We celebrate this great mystery of salvation in the Eucharistic liturgy, because each time his body and blood are offered, his death and resurrection are renewed and we are established as his people, his community. This allows us to understand the centrality of the Sunday Eucharistic Liturgy, in which we are reborn to new life. Just as the Jewish Sabbath as seen in the book of Genesis is the fulfilment of creation, so the Christian Sunday is the fulfilment of a new creation inaugurated by the death and resurrection of the Lord. Of course, this fulfilment is only partial for us and for creation today, because death and corruption have been defeated only in Christ Jesus, not in us and creation. In fact, we are waiting with hope for the complete fulfilment, when “Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away” (Rev 21:4). However, in the encounter with Jesus, we already experience liberation from the slavery of sin, the forgiveness that is given, and the healing of our souls. The healing work of Jesus, recounted in the Gospels, is a sign that the Kingdom of God has already begun, but has not yet reached its fullness for which we need this high priest after the order of Melchizedek, who will continue to offer his life for us, giving us his bread, making himself food for us in the Word that becomes the bread and food of eternal life.
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
