Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Deuteronomy 6, 4-13
'Listen, Israel: Yahweh our God is the one, the only Yahweh.
You must love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.
Let the words I enjoin on you today stay in your heart.
You shall tell them to your children, and keep on telling them, when you are sitting at home, when you are out and about, when you are lying down and when you are standing up;
you must fasten them on your hand as a sign and on your forehead as a headband;
you must write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
'When Yahweh has brought you into the country which he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that he would give you, with great and prosperous cities you have not built,
with houses full of good things you have not provided, with wells you have not dug, with vineyards and olive trees you have not planted, and then, when you have eaten as much as you want,
be careful you do not forget Yahweh who has brought you out of Egypt, out of the place of slave-labour.
Yahweh your God is the one you must fear, him alone you must serve, his is the name by which you must swear.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This page of Scripture is among the most sacred to the people of Israel. Jesus himself will quote it in response to the question of which is the first commandment. The text contains the first draft of the “Shema”, the ancient prayer that every Jew still reads every day. This invitation is in short the whole theology of the book of Deuteronomy. The believer is called first to listen: here is the beginning of his faith and the heart of his whole life. He is then invited to love: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might” (v. 5). The love of God is the main commandment from which comes the whole law. Without love, even the law becomes an obstacle and a hindrance. Moses then exhorts believers, while they live in comfort, not to forget that it was God who freed them from slavery in Egypt. Failure to listen allows us to focus only on ourselves, forgetting the long history of the love of God who has saved and freed his people from the slavery and oppression of the enemy. In continued and faithful listening believers recognize that only God is the Lord, the one who loves them, who saved them and on whom they can rely. In their total abandonment to the Lord, his people find salvation. Compliance with the law allows Israel to remain in God and to experience his strength. It is a covenant with the Lord who will support them every day, freeing them from all danger. This biblical page also asks Christians to remain faithful to the Word of God and put it into practice every day. It is from here, in fact, that our salvation comes.
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
