Memorial of Father Aleksandr Men', Orthodox priest from Moscow, barbarically murdered in 1990. Read more
Memorial of Father Aleksandr Men’, Orthodox priest from Moscow, barbarically murdered in 1990.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Colossians 3, 1-11
Since you have been raised up to be with Christ, you must look for the things that are above, where Christ is, sitting at God's right hand.
Let your thoughts be on things above, not on the things that are on the earth,
because you have died, and now the life you have is hidden with Christ in God.
But when Christ is revealed -- and he is your life-you, too, will be revealed with him in glory.
That is why you must kill everything in you that is earthly: sexual vice, impurity, uncontrolled passion, evil desires and especially greed, which is the same thing as worshipping a false god;
it is precisely these things which draw God's retribution upon those who resist.
And these things made up your way of life when you were living among such people,
but now you also must give up all these things: human anger, hot temper, malice, abusive language and dirty talk;
and do not lie to each other. You have stripped off your old behaviour with your old self,
and you have put on a new self which will progress towards true knowledge the more it is renewed in the image of its Creator;
and in that image there is no room for distinction between Greek and Jew, between the circumcised and uncircumcised, or between barbarian and Scythian, slave and free. There is only Christ: he is everything and he is in everything.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The apostle reminds the Christians of Colossae that they are already now risen with Christ and therefore freed from the slavery of evil and death. Paul knows well, however, that the fight against fear and sin is not yet finished. For this one must stay connected to Christ and seek "the things that are above." It is not an impossible task, because the goal is not far away and unknown. Disciples need to remain with Christ and follow the new life he has given us which is, in effect, to let the power of the resurrection of which we are made partakers work in us. The apostle urges therefore not to think about the "things that are on earth," that is, not to hold them as definitive, not to sacrifice our lives on their altar because they are ephemeral and fleeting. Christians who live with Jesus participate already now in the final Kingdom. Thus, as members of the Body of Christ, they are called to realize the Gospel in their daily life, becoming a new creation. Salvation dwells in them already, as Jesus himself had said, "Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgement, but has passed from death to life” (Jn 5:24). But we know that the new life given to us by Christ is still hidden and will manifest itself in its fullness at the end of time. We are asked to keep it and make it grow so as to hasten the coming of the last day.
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
