We remember Our Lady of Sheshan, sanctuary nearby Shanghai in China. Prayer for Chinese Christians. Read more
We remember Our Lady of Sheshan, sanctuary nearby Shanghai in China. Prayer for Chinese Christians.
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
Acts 16,22-34
The crowd joined in and showed its hostility to them, so the magistrates had them stripped and ordered them to be flogged. They were given many lashes and then thrown into prison, and the gaoler was told to keep a close watch on them. So, following such instructions, he threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. In the middle of the night Paul and Silas were praying and singing God's praises, while the other prisoners listened. Suddenly there was an earthquake that shook the prison to its foundations. All the doors flew open and the chains fell from all the prisoners. When the gaoler woke and saw the doors wide open he drew his sword and was about to commit suicide, presuming that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted at the top of his voice, 'Do yourself no harm; we are all here.' He called for lights, then rushed in, threw himself trembling at the feet of Paul and Silas, and escorted them out, saying, 'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?' They told him, 'Become a believer in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, and your household too.' Then they preached the word of the Lord to him and to all his household. Late as it was, he took them to wash their wounds, and was baptised then and there with all his household. Afterwards he took them into his house and gave them a meal, and the whole household celebrated their conversion to belief in God.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
In Philippi, Christian preaching faced not only a polytheistic religious environment as in Lystra, but also a culture linked to the standard Roman way of life. The problem arose when Paul freed from an unclean spirit a poor slave girl who was making money for her master with her clairvoyant skills. Paul heals her. Together with Lydia, a convert, this slave is the second woman who marks the beginning of European Christianity. The owner of this woman, together with his friends, aroused strong opposition against Paul and Silas to the point of having them imprisoned. But this time too, the Lord frees his disciples from their chains. In the early days of Christianity, there is a singular closeness between Gospel and prison. Perhaps this is the reason Matthew emphasizes the obligation for everyone, not just disciples, to visit prisoners. For Christians, imprisonment was a frequent experience in the first centuries. But in fact there have never been a lack of believers who were imprisoned because of their faith. It is therefore even more meaningful in our time for Christians to work to bring consolation to those in prisons, particularly in those where life is abused. This is what this passage from Acts of the Apostles says. While Paul and Silas pray, they cause an "earthquake" that shook the walls and fall the chains. But mostly they change the heart of the jailor who wanted to kill himself for what had happened. Paul and Silas help him to understand what has happened and he, overcome by love, leads them out of the prison, setting them free. The jailer welcomed them and his whole family was converted to the Gospel. The love of Paul and Silas had transformed that man and his whole family.
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
