Memorial of Saint Sergii Radonezhsky. A monk, he founded the Lavra (monastery) of the Most Holy Trinity near Moscow. Remembrance of the evangelical pastor Paul Schneider who died in the Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald on July 18, 1939. Read more
Memorial of Saint Sergii Radonezhsky. A monk, he founded the Lavra (monastery) of the Most Holy Trinity near Moscow. Remembrance of the evangelical pastor Paul Schneider who died in the Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald on July 18, 1939.
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
Psalm 69, 3.14.30-34
2 I sink in deep mire,
where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters,
and the flood sweeps over me.
13 But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord.
At an acceptable time, O God,
in the abundance of your steadfast love, answer me.
With your faithful help
30 I will praise the name of God with a song;
I will magnify him with thanksgiving.
31 This will please the Lord more than an ox
or a bull with horns and hoofs.
32 Let the oppressed see it and be glad;
you who seek God, let your hearts revive.
33 For the Lord hears the needy,
and does not despise his own that are in bonds.
34 Let heaven and earth praise him,
the seas and everything that moves in them.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Psalm 69, of which we sing some verses, is dear to the Christian tradition because of the way it is cited in the New Testament. Saint Hilary of Poitiers saw the entire drama of Christ’s passion hidden in its lines. The psalmist is in a dramatic situation - the waters have come up to his neck, he is sinking in deep mire, and he cannot find any foothold to stand on. He is tired of waiting for a change that never comes. His heart is broken and his throat is sore from calling for help. The liars who hate him are more numerous than the hairs on his head. Everyone mocks him. “ The drunkards make songs about me” (v.12), he says, discouraged. They accuse him of stealing and make him return money that he never borrowed. Even worse, it is not just the derision of his enemies that torments him; even his friends and family are indifferent: “I have become a stranger to my kindred, an alien to my mother’s children” (v.8). He feels he is surrounded by deep loneliness. He once hoped for comfort, but it was in vain; he looked for someone to console him, but found no one. Even his eyes grow dim with waiting for God, who does not come. And another worry is added to the dramatic situation in which the believer finds himself. He says, “Do not let those who hope in you be put to shame because of me, O Lord God of hosts; do not let those who seek you be dishonoured because of me, O God of Israel” (v.6). These words reveal the interiority of the psalmist: he does not want his difficult situation to discourage other believers or weaken their faith in God’s help. Even though he is being sorely tested and even though he feels the danger of being blotted out of the book of the living, which God always keeps up to date (v.28), the psalmist never stops turning his prayer to the Lord - he invokes God to the point of tiring himself out and yet he keeps his trust steady, “But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love, answer me. With your faithful help rescue me” (vv. 13-14). The psalmist appeals to God’s tenderness and faithfulness: “Answer me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me. Do not hide your face from your servant, for I am in distressmake haste to answer me” (vv. 16-17). He does not blame God for what is happening, nor does he regret having been faithful. Even if he is mocked for having served the Lord, he does not even let himself to be touched by temptation to abandon his Lord. The psalmist recognizes his own faults, but he also knows that God’s heart is greater, “O God, you know my folly; the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you” (v.5), and he is certain “For the Lord hears the needy, and does not despise his own that are in bonds” (v.33). This is why he entrusts himself to the Lord and lets himself be consumed by zeal for his house (v.9).
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
