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Memory of Jesus crucified
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Memory of Jesus crucified

Remembrance of the historic Meeting in Assisi (1986), when John Paul II invited representatives of all Christian confessions and the great world religions to pray for peace. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of Jesus crucified
Friday, October 27

Remembrance of the historic Meeting in Assisi (1986), when John Paul II invited representatives of all Christian confessions and the great world religions to pray for peace.


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

Acts 20,1-16

When the disturbance was over, Paul sent for the disciples and, after speaking words of encouragement to them, said good -- bye and set out for Macedonia. On his way through those areas he said many words of encouragement to them and then made his way into Greece, where he spent three months. He was leaving by ship for Syria when a plot organised against him by the Jews made him decide to go back by way of Macedonia. He was accompanied by Sopater, son of Pyrrhus, who came from Beroea; Aristarchus and Secundus who came from Thessalonica; Gaius from Derbe, and Timothy, as well as Tychicus and Trophimus who were from Asia. They all went on to Troas where they waited for us. We ourselves left Philippi by ship after the days of Unleavened Bread and joined them five days later at Troas, where we stayed for a week. On the first day of the week we met for the breaking of bread. Paul was due to leave the next day, and he preached a sermon that went on till the middle of the night. A number of lamps were lit in the upstairs room where we were assembled, and as Paul went on and on, a young man called Eutychus who was sitting on the window-sill grew drowsy and was overcome by sleep and fell to the ground three floors below. He was picked up dead. Paul went down and stooped to clasp the boy to him, saying, 'There is no need to worry, there is still life in him.' Then he went back upstairs where he broke the bread and ate and carried on talking till he left at daybreak. They took the boy away alive, and were greatly encouraged. We were now to go on ahead by sea, so we set sail for Assos, where we were to take Paul on board; this was what he had arranged, for he wanted to go overland. When he rejoined us at Assos we took him aboard and went on to Mitylene. The next day we sailed from there and arrived opposite Chios. The second day we touched at Samos and, after stopping at Trogyllium, made Miletus the next day. Paul had decided to pass wide of Ephesus so as to avoid spending time in Asia, since he was anxious to be in Jerusalem, if possible, for the day of Pentecost.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The riot incited against Paul forces him to flee from Ephesus. At the end of they year 57 AD, the apostle begins his third trip with the aim of visiting the Christian communities he founded. But Paul does not leave as a solitary hero, self-assured with his fame. He brings with him brothers and sisters who accompany him in his ministry and in his journey. The evangelists, particularly Luke, note that Jesus also had a group of men and women who followed him wherever he went. The Church, since the very beginning, has been a community of brothers and sisters who live out the same life and apostolic passion together. The aim of the Gospel preaching was not only the Proclamation of truth, but rather the edification of the community around the word of God and the Eucharist. The birth of Christian communities in the city fabric showed the immediate effectiveness of Resurrection; those who welcomed the Gospel were freed from the loneliness and sadness of abandonment, and they became part of the community of the disciples of the Risen. This is why, in the many cities that Paul visited, he never limited himself to preaching the Gospel, but also he formed communities of disciples who persevered in listening to the Word of God, in living out the spirit of fraternity and in loving the poor. This was the basic statute of the Christian communities in Antioch, Corinth, Philippi, Ephesus and elsewhere. One cannot be Christian alone, as the Second Vatican Council affirms in the Constitution on the Church. In this passage the author of Acts recounts the liturgy celebrated in Troad where Paul raised Euthicus, a man who had fallen from a window while asleep, from death. We could say that the Divine Liturgy is always a celebration of the resurrection to a new life. In it the community is reconstituted as one Body because it listens to same Word and nourishes itself on one Bread.

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!