Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi (+1226). Remembrance of the dedication of the Primavalle "chapel"; the first place of prayer of the community of Sant'Egidio in the outskirts of Rome. On October 4, 1992, the peace treaty that put an end to the war in Mozambique was signed in Rome. Prayer for all those who work for peace. Read more
Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi (+1226). Remembrance of the dedication of the Primavalle "chapel"; the first place of prayer of the community of Sant'Egidio in the outskirts of Rome. On October 4, 1992, the peace treaty that put an end to the war in Mozambique was signed in Rome. Prayer for all those who work for peace.
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
Matthew 11,25-30
At that time Jesus exclaimed, 'I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to little children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do. Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 'Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, in memory of his death on the night of October 3, 1226. Even today, his witness continues to move the hearts of many men and women towards the Lord. Two signs mark his conversion: his encounter with the leper, whom he embraced and kissed, and the time he listened to the voice of the Crucifix in the church of Saint Damian. After those two encounters, he began living the Gospel "without additions," and became a significant witness of the Gospel not only within the Catholic Church and the whole of Christianity, but also outside its borders. In an era of Crusades, his longing for peace pushed him to journey to Damietta to speak with the sultan. He gathered many disciples, whom he called "brothers," and chose to live among the minores, the poor who filled the medieval cities. In him, the Gospel became the leavening of a boundless universal fraternity. It was precisely this universally recognized and esteemed dimension of Francis' story that encouraged John Paul II to choose Assisi as the site for the historic meeting of the world's religions for the Prayer for Peace in 1986. The Gospel passage that the liturgy offers us on this feast day reports a prayer in which Jesus thanks the Father for bending down to the little ones, revealing to them his mystery of love, the mystery, which has lain hidden for ages, that not even the wise could or can understand. It is the mystery of Jesus himself, sent by the Father to earth to save men and women from the power of evil and death. It was God's gracious will to save humanity by starting with the smallest and weakest. This privilege of the poor is a constant in the Bible and still a reality for Jesus' disciples. Pope Francis constantly reminds of this with his example. That is precisely why he chose the name of the saint from Assisi. The young man from Assisi asks us to follow his example and join the ranks of the little ones who have welcomed and lived out this love. Saint Francis is part of the long line of witnesses that runs like a red thread through scripture: God's preference for the poor and the weak. This is where God starts saving the world. Francis retraced the ancient story of Jesus' disciples: despite being simple, scorned men, they were chosen by Jesus to be apostles of the Kingdom. Not only did he reveal his mystery to them, he entrusted them with it so that they would reveal it to the world. It is through these disciples that Jesus is still speaking to the tired crowds of our world: "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." This is the path that Jesus continues to indicate to the disciples: gathering the weak and learning from him to be meek and humble of heart. Life with Jesus is gentle and light; life according to the world is hard and heavy.
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
