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
Psalm 34, 7-8.10-13
6 This poor soul cried, and was heard by the Lord,
and was saved from every trouble.
7 The angel of the Lord encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
9 O fear the Lord, you his holy ones,
for those who fear him have no want.
10 The young lions suffer want and hunger,
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
11 Come, O children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
12 Which of you desires life,
and covets many days to enjoy good?
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The psalmist was part of the “poor of God,” that is, those believers who were not considered, but rather despised and marginalized. However, they were loved by the Lord who paid them the greatest attention, watched over them, listened to them, was attentive to their cry and came to their help. This is why the psalmist can sing: “This poor soul cried, and was heard by the LORD, and was saved from every trouble” (v.6). This cry, often repeated in the psalms, rises from a soul full of trust in God. Psalm 22:24 sings: “For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him.” The answer of God is beautiful; He sends an angel who encamps around the “poor of God,” ensnared by evil, to defend and free them “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them” (v.7). We are not alone to fight against evil, which wants to keep the poor and weak enslaved. Rather we leave the Lord fighting alone. On the contrary, the Lord sends his holy angel in our defence. It is he who defeats evil and saves us. Psalm 127 warns: “Unless the Lord guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain” (v.1). The reasons believers should trust in the Lord are listed throughout the course of the psalm: the Lord responds to those who seek him, hears the cry of the poor soul who cries, allows those who invoke him not to lack any good thing, is near to those who love Him and saves those who are troubled. Therefore believers can say words full of steadfast and profound faithfulness. Believers, like all righteous people battered by blows, remain steadfast in the Lord and his faithfulness does not fail. Further on the psalmist will say: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD rescues them from all” (v. 19). This is why believers are invited to trust, and maintain their trust, only in the Lord. Let us listen to the invitation of the psalmist: “Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord” (v.11). We all need to listen in order to learn the “fear of the Lord,” in order to be guided by him, obey his teachings, and walk along his paths. This part of the psalms ends with a question about the way of salvation: “Which of you desires life, and covets many days to enjoy good?” (v.13). The answer is inscribed in the preceding words: the way of salvation is the one the Lord walks, listening to the poor, close and far, and “encamping” by them to free them from evil. The hungry lion looking for prey, of which the psalmist speaks, will find believers at the side of the poor to defend them and free them from evil. Believers know that long before we have the Lord has heard the cry of the poor and sends us, like His angels, to defend them.
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
