Memorial of Pope Saint Calixtus (+222). He was a friend to the poor and founded the house of prayer on which later would be built the basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere. Read more
Memorial of Pope Saint Calixtus (+222). He was a friend to the poor and founded the house of prayer on which later would be built the basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere.
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
Ephesians 1,11-14
And it is in him that we have received our heritage, marked out beforehand as we were, under the plan of the One who guides all things as he decides by his own will, chosen to be, for the praise of his glory, the people who would put their hopes in Christ before he came. Now you too, in him, have heard the message of the truth and the gospel of your salvation, and having put your trust in it you have been stamped with the seal of the Holy Spirit of the Promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance, for the freedom of the people whom God has taken for his own, for the praise of his glory.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The apostle starts his Letter with a hymn of blessing. His gaze of faith leads him to praise the Lord for the plan of salvation that He has conceived for the entire universe. The three Persons of the Trinity work together: the Father, origin and promoter of this saving plan; Christ, the mediator through whom God realizes it; and the Holy Spirit that guides all towards the final fulfilment. The blessing is directed to God because He has blessed us "with every spiritual blessing." Generally, we ask God’s blessing; here it is the apostle who blesses the Father for the love with which He has loved us. Such love is a blessing for us. In fact, we have been chosen by God since eternity; and we have been chosen "in Christ", i.e. members of the community of his disciples. God never intended Christ without the Church, and therefore He never thought of us without the community. Hence our gratitude to the Lord, knowing that we "exist" because we are loved personally by him and intended to be "holy and blameless." The purpose of the Incarnation of the Son is "to gather up" all and everything in Jesus. With his resurrection the Crucified Jesus has been placed at the head of all creation. In him the whole universe and the history of people find cohesion and meaning. He fulfils the dream of unity present in God since creation: we all come from God and to Him we must all return. Such a plan was revealed in a completely new way when Jesus showed us God as his "Father." In the risen Son God opened his fatherhood to all humankind. Therefore we believers live already now in the Risen One, to the point of saying that the Father has already carried us "in heaven", where Christ is. This is why the fight against the powers of evil is not in vain. Already now believers participate in the final victory of Christ and know that nothing can ever separate them from God’s love. In Christ, God has designed, built and completed the entire plan of salvation. He is the Alpha and the Omega; he was at the origin and now recapitulates in himself all things. We believers are given the "Holy Spirit of promise," that is what was promised to the prophets (see Ez 36:25ff), which for us is also a "pledge" (v. 14), a deposit, an advance of the fulfilment of the divine work in our favour.
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
