Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
1 Samuel 1,24-28
When she had weaned him, she took him up with her, as well as a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and took him into the temple of Yahweh at Shiloh; the child was very young. They sacrificed the bull and led the child to Eli. She said, 'If you please, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood beside you here, praying to Yahweh. This is the child for which I was praying, and Yahweh has granted me what I asked of him. Now I make him over to Yahweh for the whole of his life. He is made over to Yahweh.' They then worshipped Yahweh there.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The passage we read follows the fulfilment of Hannah’s prayer requesting a child. So when she returned home, "Elkanah knew his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her." Prayer prompted the Lord to turn his gaze towards this woman. The reference to Christmas we are about to celebrate is evident. In Hannah’s prayer there is along list of the poor and the weak and of the entire humanity invoking salvation. The Lord listens to the prayers of those who turn to him with faith. Hannah is heard and receives from God the son that she had "asked for." She called him Samuel, meaning "asked of God." Samuel is truly the child of prayer. Hannah keeps watch over him like a precious gift. That is why she lets Elkanah go on a pilgrimage to Shiloh alone. She tells her husband: "As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him, that he may appear in the presence of the Lord, and remain there for ever." It is impossible to stand in the presence of God without understanding at least a little of the mystery, without sensing that holy fear that should be felt in front of his greatness. Therefore, when the child was weaned, Hannah made the pilgrimage to Shiloh with him and presented him immediately to Eli. She wanted to fulfil the vow that she had made to the Lord. Aware of the great mercy that the Lord had shown her and mindful of the benefits she had received, Hannah does not keep the child for herself but entrusts him into the Lord’s hands, as she had promised. She had experienced the Lord’s power, and she was certain that her son was in stronger and safer hands than hers. She repaid God’s faithfulness to her ("The Lord remembered her") with loyalty to Him ("the Lord has granted me the petition that I made to him). This woman stands before Israel and us as an example of a believer. In her we can see the very meaning of the covenant that the Lord established with Israel. She knows, and now so do we, that Israel’s new life comes from God’s very power, a power that is inexplicable and irresistible as well as strong and concrete. What is surprising is that this power is raised up and provoked by the prayer of humble Hannah. She did not have any particular skills or pretensions, she simply persevered in prayer, accepted God’s blessing, and put the fruit of her womb in God’s service.
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
