Feast Of Joachim and Anna, ancestors of the Lord. We remember all the elderly who, with love, communicate their faith to the young. Memorial of Mary, a mentally ill woman who died in Rome in 1991. With her we remember all who are mentally ill. Read more
Feast Of Joachim and Anna, ancestors of the Lord. We remember all the elderly who, with love, communicate their faith to the young. Memorial of Mary, a mentally ill woman who died in Rome in 1991. With her we remember all who are mentally ill.
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 78, 18-19.23-28
18 They tested God in their heart
by demanding the food they craved.
19 They spoke against God, saying,
Can God spread a table in the wilderness?
23 Yet he commanded the skies above,
and opened the doors of heaven;
24 he rained down on them manna to eat,
and gave them the grain of heaven.
25 Mortals ate of the bread of angels;
he sent them food in abundance.
26 He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens,
and by his power he led out the south wind;
27 he rained flesh upon them like dust,
winged birds like the sand of the seas;
28 he let them fall within their camp,
all around their dwellings.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
“Give ear, O my people, to my teaching I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old” (v. 1-2). So the psalmist begins this long psalm that recounts the story of God’s love for his people, a story that always repeats itself in the same way. On one side there is God’s love for Israel, and on the other the people’s refusal. Only in times of need does Israel turn to the Lord, but once they have returned to a state of wellbeing they forget his love. We are all quite familiar with this story, as it has been our own experience. Nonetheless, the psalmist shows how God continues to save and forgive his people. The psalm sings: “He divided the sea and let them pass through it, and made the waters stand like a heap He split rocks open in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep Yet they sinned still more against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert” (v. 13-17). The psalmist exhorts his listeners to remember this salvation story and retell it: “Things that we have heard and known, that our ancestors have told us, we will not hide them from their children” (v. 3-4). Of course we have to remember our sins so as not to repeat them. They are many, as the psalm says: rebellion, temptation, grumbling, lack of trust, forgetfulness, avidity, insatiability, thoughtlessness, duplicity, and disloyalty. The psalm sings: “They flattered him with their mouths; they lied to him with their tongues. Their heart was not steadfast toward him; they were not true to his covenant” (v. 36-37). But above all the psalmist invites his listeners to remember the Lord’s works: their liberation from Egypt, how the Lord provided for them in the desert, and his willingness to forgive. Remembering these events is not just an act of memory: it means reliving in the present the things that happened in the past. This is what it means to listen to Holy Scripture. Each time the pages of Scripture are welcomed, it is in fact we who are welcomed in this history of salvation. The psalm invites us to reflect on the mystery of God’s love: even though he sees and regularly punishes the obstinacy of sin, God is always faithful to men and women. God is well aware of human weakness: “He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and does not come again” (v. 39). God lets his anger burn to the threshold of destruction. He gives his people to the sword, fire devours the flower of their youth, and their priests fall to the sword (v. 62-64). But “Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a warrior shouting because of wine” (v.65). It seems as though God cannot but love men and women and so he always saves them. History seems to move forward in the same way: after sin comes God’s forgiveness, and after God’s forgiveness the people forget. But in the end it is not sin that triumphs, but God’s love. The end of the psalm gives us a glimpse of the end of history. Speaking of the Lord, it says, “With upright heart he tended them, and guided them with skilful hand” (v. 72). God’s love, of which forgiveness is an integral part, will triumph over sin.
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
