Feast 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 periphery 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, remembering his death in the night of October 3, 1226. Even today, his witness continues to move the hearts of many men and women towards the Lord. His conversion was marked by the encounter with the leper whom he embraced and kissed and the listening to the voice from the Crucifix in St. Damian. Since then, he started living the Gospel "without additions." In him, the Gospel became the leaven of a universal fraternity that does not know any border. The Gospel passage that the liturgy offers us on this feast day shares one of Jesus' prayers in which he thanks the Father for bending on the little ones, revealing to them the mystery of his saving love, that mystery hidden throughout the ages that not even the wise could have understood if God did not reveal it: that God so loved the world to send His own Son to save all men and women from the power of evil and death. n understand. Such mystery is Jesus himself who was sent to earth to save humanity from the power of evil and of death. It was God's gracious will to save humanity beginning with the littlest and weakest ones. This privilege of the poor is a constant in the Bible and it continues even today in the life of Jesus' disciples. Pope Francis does not cease reminding us of it with his very example. This is why he chose the name of the saint of Assisi. The young man from Assisi also urges us to be, as he was, among the little ones who welcomed and lived this love out. St. Francis is part of the long host of believers that stretches throughout twenty centuries of Christian history as a single red thread and which reveals God's preference for the weak and the poor. It is God's preference for the poor and the weak. It is here that God starts to save the world. Francis retraced the old story of Jesus' disciples: they, simple and despised people, were chosen by Jesus as apostles of the Kingdom. Through these disciples, Jesus continues to address the tired crowds of this world, telling them, "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest."