Memory of St. Philip Neri (1515-1595), "apostle of Rome."
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Memory of St. Philip Neri (1515-1595), "apostle of Rome."
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
Acts 1,12-14
So from the Mount of Olives, as it is called, they went back to Jerusalem, a short distance away, no more than a Sabbath walk;
and when they reached the city they went to the upper room where they were staying; there were Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Jude son of James.
With one heart all these joined constantly in prayer, together with some women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Now the apostles do not see Jesus by their sides anymore. And yet, Jesus is present. Indeed, it is his presence that gathers them together, and it is his name that identifies them. They are, for all intents and purposes, Jews. They go to the Temple, they observe the Sabbath, they sing the psalms, and yet they are no longer like they were before. They keep all of the Jewish traditions, but the Gospel is in their heart. This is the first image of the Christian community in the Acts of the Apostles; each of them is clearly recognizable, as if in a photograph. In fact, the Christian community is not an anonymous group, an assembly of people who do not know each other, a collection of people in which one does not know what the other is doing and where everyone goes off on his own. The community of the believers in Jesus is made up of brothers and sisters that know each other by name. Luke tells us everyone’s name; only Judas, the one who betrayed, is missing. It is an absence that reminds us of our fragility: only trust in Jesus guarantees our belonging to the community of disciples. Familiarity with Jesus is the vital reason of this family that gathers in his name. It is a true and proper family. They have a Father, who is in heaven, and a mother, the mother of Jesus, who stands among them. In this special family, they are together, and they help each other. They are truly different from the way people normally live in our cities. Jesus had taught them to love one another, to help each other and to care about those who were in need. Their strength came from prayer; they could not live without prayer. That is why, the author of the Acts writes, they were "constantly devoting themselves to prayer." Prayer spoken together has a particular strength, as Jesus himself had said: "If two of you on earth agree to ask anything at all, it will be granted to you by my Father in heaven." Prayer is the first and fundamental work of all believers, which cements them together making of them "one heart and one soul" and allows them to witness Jesus’ primacy in our life. Jesus remains the fount and the apex of the life of the Christian community and of every disciple. The life of the believer rotates entirely around the Lord who died and was raised up for us and for the entire world.
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
