Memorial of Saints Cosmas and Damien, Syrian martyrs. The tradition remembers them as doctors who took care of the sick for free. Special memory of those who dedicate their lives to the treatment and healing of the sick. Read more
Memorial of Saints Cosmas and Damien, Syrian martyrs. The tradition remembers them as doctors who took care of the sick for free. Special memory of those who dedicate their lives to the treatment and healing of the sick.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Zechariah 2, 5-9.14-15
Then, raising my eyes, I had a vision. There was a man with a measuring line in his hand.
I asked him, 'Where are you going?' He said, 'To measure Jerusalem, to calculate her width and length.'
And then, while the angel who was talking to me walked away, another angel came out to meet him.
He said to him, 'Run, and tell that young man this, "Jerusalem is to remain unwalled, because of the great number of men and cattle inside.
For I -- Yahweh declares -- shall be a wall of fire all round her and I shall be the Glory within her." '
Sing, rejoice, daughter of Zion, for now I am coming to live among you -Yahweh declares!
And on that day many nations will be converted to Yahweh. Yes, they will become his people, and they will live among you. Then you will know that Yahweh Sabaoth has sent me to you!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The prophet Zechariah, peer to Haggai, priest linked to Ezekiel, was sent to the people of Israel after Haggai. Zechariah strove to support the people of the Lord --back in Jerusalem from exile in Babylon--with the Word of God. After rebuilding the Temple, with lots of trouble, the people couldn’t overcome their disappointment for the lack of blessings of God for their work. In the first eight chapters there are eight visions of the prophet inspired by the Messiah. The prophet proclaimed the Messiah as a meek and peaceful king who made true the expectations of the poor (9:9), but who would be killed violently (12:10). The page we have just heard reports the third vision of the Prophet, the vision of a new Jerusalem. The prophet sees a city in open country, which for its vastness cannot be surrounded and which will welcome all the ages: "People will live in Jerusalem as though in open country, because of the multitude of men and beasts in her midst." God "will be for her an encircling wall of fire to protect the city" (v.9). The main feature of the Heavenly Jerusalem is its boundlessness, its being without walls, like the limitless love of God which doesn’t exclude anyone from His embrace. God himself will live in it: "I am coming to dwell among you." God is indeed its joy, consolation, and protection. The wide, boundless presence of God attracts all the nations. This is a vision of the God’s universal promise, which will be fulfilled with the coming of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. The Gospel of Jesus is essentially the revelation of salvation for all nations and peoples. The prophet Zechariah had already foretold: "Many nations shall join themselves to the Lord on that day, and they shall be his people, and he will dwell among you." This vision of the prophet has already begun and we are part of it. He involved us and continues to send us to the ends of the earth so that others may enjoy His love and salvation.
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
