Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Matthew 6, 7-15
'In your prayers do not babble as the gentiles do, for they think that by using many words they will make themselves heard.
Do not be like them; your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
So you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be held holy,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us.
And do not put us to the test, but save us from the Evil One.
'Yes, if you forgive others their failings, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours;
but if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive your failings either.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
The liturgy of this Lenten season leads us to some of the most significant pages in the Gospel. They help us grow in our inner life. This is why we need to let our minds be instructed and our hearts be warmed by the words of the Gospel every day. Today Jesus gives us his prayer, the Our Father. He first warns us that prayer is not just the multiplication of words, as if their quantity were what counted and not the heart with which they are pronounced. Instead he wants to show us the path of direct prayer, which immediately reaches God’s heart. He is the only one who could have taught this. He alone is the perfect Son who knows the Father deeply. Because of this, and because he loves his disciples with a limitless love, he teaches them the highest prayer, the prayer that God cannot help but hear. The character of this prayer can be understood from its first word, Abba (father). With this simple word - used by children everywhere when speaking to their own fathers - Jesus accomplishes a true revolution with respect to the Jewish tradition of never even speaking God’s holy name. He involves us in his own intimacy with the Father. It is not that he "lowers" God to us, but rather that we are raised up to the heavens, to the very heart of God, "who is in heaven" so that we can call him "father." Even if the Father remains "in heaven" he is the One who embraces us. It is right to do the will of a Father like Him. It is right to ask for his kingdom to come soon, that is, the time when God’s holiness will finally be recognized. In the second part of the prayer, Jesus has us ask the Father about our daily life: we ask Him for bread, bread for our bodies and for our hearts. And then we dare to make a serious request: "Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." It seems harsh and unrealistic: how can we make human forgiveness the model ("as we also...") of divine forgiveness? In truth it is extraordinarily wise. We see this in the following verses: "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." This language is incomprehensible to a society like ours, in which forgiveness is quite rare, if not totally obsolete and where resentment and animosity are weeds we have been unable to fully eradicate. But perhaps this is why we need to learn how to pray the Our Father even more.
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
