Memorial of St. Anthony from the caves of Kiev (+1073). The father of Russian monks he is considered the founder of the Monastery of the Caves with St. Theodosius. Read more
Memorial of St. Anthony from the caves of Kiev (+1073). The father of Russian monks he is considered the founder of the Monastery of the Caves with St. Theodosius.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Jeremiah 7,1-11
The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying, 'Stand at the gate of the Temple of Yahweh and there proclaim this message. Say, "Listen to the word of Yahweh, all you of Judah who come in by these gates to worship Yahweh. Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: Amend your behaviour and your actions and I will let you stay in this place. Do not put your faith in delusive words, such as: This is Yahweh's sanctuary, Yahweh's sanctuary, Yahweh's sanctuary! But if you really amend your behaviour and your actions, if you really treat one another fairly, if you do not exploit the stranger, the orphan and the widow, if you do not shed innocent blood in this place and if you do not follow other gods, to your own ruin, then I shall let you stay in this place, in the country I gave for ever to your ancestors of old. Look, you are putting your faith in delusive, worthless words! Steal, would you, murder, commit adultery, perjure yourselves, burn incense to Baal, follow other gods of whom you know nothing?- and then come and stand before me in this Temple that bears my name, saying: Now we are safe to go on doing all these loathsome things! Do you look on this Temple that bears my name as a den of bandits? I, at any rate, can see straight, Yahweh declares.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Temple of Jerusalem, built by King Solomon, had become the heart of the relationship of the people of Israel with God. It was the place for prayer and especially sacrifice. Within its holy courts, believers entered into communion with the Lord, gave thanks to him for the blessings they had received, and were granted forgiveness for their sins. Jeremiah recalls an ancient truth of Israel’s faith, one that is present all through the prophets: the Temple is not a place to worship God with outwardly focused rituals that do not correspond to the ?worshipers’ lives. Starting with Isaiah (chapter 1), and then Hosea (6:1-6) and Amos (4:4-5) the prophets affirm that the sacrifices and prayers of people whose hands are stained with blood are not pleasing to God. Violence and injustice do not go along with visiting God’s house. As Jesus will say: "Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord", will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven" (Mt 7:21). Communion with God, which is established in the Temple, requires a life based on listening to his word, not to ourselves. We sometimes run the risk of becoming satisfied with a disembodied faith, which does not become life or love for our neighbours, which does not change hearts and history. Devotions and prayers that become their own measure are not enough. The Temple is the place of the community, the people of God. We are not alone there. Christian faith, which is rooted in the faith of Israel, is not a private affair between individuals and God, as if no one else existed. This is why faith is sometimes abstract and cannot touch lives or people’s daily experience: it becomes a private affair, which everyone manages by him or herself, without the comfort or correction of anyone else. Speaking with the Lord’s voice, Jeremiah adds, "Amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place." We can follow this command by living lives that are nourished by the Word of God, that take care of the poor ("do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow"), that engage with the faith of others, and that do not give in to idolatry. We cannot be disciples without putting the Lord’s commandments into practice, without joining together to search for the path of justice and love.
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
