Memorial of Saint Augustine of Canterbury (+605 ca.), bishop, father of the English church. Read more
Memorial of Saint Augustine of Canterbury (+605 ca.), bishop, father of the English church.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
1 Peter 4,7-13
The end of all things is near, so keep your minds calm and sober for prayer. Above all preserve an intense love for each other, since love covers over many a sin. Welcome each other into your houses without grumbling. Each one of you has received a special grace, so, like good stewards responsible for all these varied graces of God, put it at the service of others. If anyone is a speaker, let it be as the words of God, if anyone serves, let it be as in strength granted by God; so that in everything God may receive the glory, through Jesus Christ, since to him alone belong all glory and power for ever and ever. Amen. My dear friends, do not be taken aback at the testing by fire which is taking place among you, as though something strange were happening to you; but in so far as you share in the sufferings of Christ, be glad, so that you may enjoy a much greater gladness when his glory is revealed.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
"The end of all things is near," Peter writes in his letter. He does not speak about it as a terrible thing to undergo, but as a major event toward which we should go, without delay, and with joy and reverence. It is necessary to be vigilant if one wants to seize the moment as an opportune time. The end of all things, however, is not something to put off to another time distant from our present existence. In truth, we should heed it as something in relation to the end of our own days. Actually, we could say that every day for us is the final moment, the day that will never return, and therefore decisive and definitive. Christians should live each day as if it were the last, also because we do not know when death will come. We should therefore be vigilant not just for a moment, but always, every day. Vigilance is not something abstract or that we do in a remote place. We are vigilant by persevering in prayer and living by love. To our consolation the apostle adds that love covers a great number of sins: those who love their brothers and sisters, serve the poor and weak, and have concern for others, also prepare their own salvation. This is a conviction that spans the entire spiritual tradition of the Church. Moreover, Jesus himself makes this clear when he affirms that salvation depends on our love for the poor, which he explains in chapter twenty-five of Matthew’s Gospel. We are all called to conduct our lives by living them for others. Peter, among many ways of serving the community, points to two of them that are already found in the Acts of the Apostles: the service of the Word of God and the soup-kitchen. He invites us to rediscover the centrality of prayer and charity: the two tracks along which salvation runs. The apostle, for the second time, as to express a special love for those Christians who were suffering the harshness of persecution, calls them "beloved." Perhaps the violence they suffered and which Peter compared to a fire was particularly hard. He exhorts them not to be shocked: it is normal in the life of a disciple to be suffering caused by opposition to the Gospel. Better still, he adds that they even have to be joyful about it, because in this way they participate in the very suffering of Christ. It is the way that the disciples must follow to obtain his same glory with the resurrection. In reality, no pain is wasted and no sacrifice is lost before the eyes of God. There is a ministry of suffering which shows the redeeming truth of the cross: it is from the cross that salvation begins. And the disciples of Jesus are called to "participate in the suffering of Christ" cooperating with him for the salvation of 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
