Memory of St. Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem. Prayer for Jerusalem and for peace in the Holy Land.
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Memory of St. Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem. Prayer for Jerusalem and for peace in the Holy Land.
Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Ecclesiastes 10,8-14
He who digs a pit falls into it, he who undermines a wall gets bitten by a snake,
he who quarries stones gets hurt by them, he who chops wood takes a risk from it.
If, for want of sharpening, the blade is blunt, you have to work twice as hard; but it is the outcome that makes wisdom rewarding.
If, for want of charming, the snake bites, the snake-charmer gets nothing out of it.
The sayings of a sage give pleasure, what a fool says procures his own ruin:
his words have their origin in stupidity and their ending in treacherous folly.
A fool talks a great deal, but none of us in fact can tell the future; what will happen after us, who can tell?
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Qohelet, who does not claim to offer a complete picture of wisdom, contents himself with modest proverbs that are useful. He offers examples of everyday wisdom: one who digs a pit can fall into it; one who tears down a wall can be bitten by a snake. It is to say that every work can hold unpleasant surprises and in any case involves some risk. It thus occurs that one who breaks up stones may hurt himself or a woodcutter may run into danger (v. 9). Knowledge and competence are not enough to be safe. A tragedy can occur even though all precautions were taken. If one employs an axe or a scythe, it must be sharp, otherwise it takes twice the effort and with meagre results. In other words, wisdom, even though it foresees and prevents, does not give certainty of succeeding always and in everything. It does offer an advantage, however, since it guards against at least the dangers of incompetence and lack of preparation that lead to ruin. The one who is unprepared is like a "snake charmer" who cannot accomplish his task. In life -Qohelet maintains- it is good to cultivate wisdom because, even though it does not solve everything, it helps to live better anyway. The wise know how to say words which help, while the fool utters useless words, ones which provoke and harm, and he ends up raving as if he were an unbearable and dangerous madman (v. 13). His foolishness becomes apparent when he speaks of the future, that is, on the meaning of life and its end. True wisdom is to recognize one’s own ignorance of the future.
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
