Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Deuteronomy 30, 15-20
'Look, today I am offering you life and prosperity, death and disaster.
If you obey the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I am laying down for you today, if you love Yahweh your God and follow his ways, if you keep his commandments, his laws and his customs, you will live and grow numerous, and Yahweh your God will bless you in the country which you are about to enter and make your own.
But if your heart turns away, if you refuse to listen, if you let yourself be drawn into worshipping other gods and serving them,
I tell you today, you will most certainly perish; you will not live for long in the country which you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
Today, I call heaven and earth to witness against you: I am offering you life or death, blessing or curse. Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live,
in the love of Yahweh your God, obeying his voice, holding fast to him; for in this your life consists, and on this depends the length of time that you stay in the country which Yahweh swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that he would give them.'
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
At the beginning of Lent we are all presented with a choice: to convert to the Lord and abandon the ways of evil and death to follow the ways of good and life. Deuteronomy shows the possibility of living in peace through the obedience to the Lord’s commandment: love the Lord, walk in his ways, observe his commands. The same call is made again at the end of the passage: “Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him.” Above all love. Everything starts from there. Loving the Lord means listening to him, welcoming his word, and therefore “walking in his ways,” that is, following him, “keeping united to him.” No one should put himself or herself before the Lord, as we would love to do, believing ourselves wiser than the Gospel. The disciplesbecause they are disciplesknow well that they must always stay behind to follow and to listen. Even in the Gospels Jesus asks the disciples to follow him. Praying and listening to and reading the Word of God will help us follow Him. Often in life we would like to all stay ahead, to assert ourselvesothers should follow us, pay attention to us, give way to our habits and give in to our reasons. To be disciples and to love the Lord is a choice that is renewed every day, above all during Lent, an opportune time for conversion, which helps turn us from ourselves and turn our eyes toward the Lord. In loving and following we learn how to obey his commands, his Word. Deuteronomy shows that in the love of God and in obedience to Him the way of life and longevity is hidden. It is a vision that at times is contested in the same Bible, especially when confronted with the suffering and premature death of a just one, as it happens for example in the book of Job and in the book of Wisdom. In any case, it is without a doubt that communion with the Lord and listening to his Word that render life beautiful and human, and are a great wisdom for 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
