Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
1 Timothy 4, 1-11
The Spirit has explicitly said that during the last times some will desert the faith and pay attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines that come from devils,
seduced by the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are branded as though with a red-hot iron:
they forbid marriage and prohibit foods which God created to be accepted with thanksgiving by all who believe and who know the truth.
Everything God has created is good, and no food is to be rejected, provided it is received with thanksgiving:
the word of God and prayer make it holy.
If you put all this to the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus and show that you have really digested the teaching of the faith and the good doctrine which you have always followed.
Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales. Train yourself for religion.
Physical exercise is useful enough, but the usefulness of religion is unlimited, since it holds out promise both for life here and now and for the life to come;
that is a saying that you can rely on and nobody should doubt it.
I mean that the point of all our toiling and battling is that we have put our trust in the living God and he is the Saviour of the whole human race but particularly of all believers.
This is what you are to instruct and teach.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
After concluding with Christ’s exaltation, and the list of instructions regarding Church organization, Paul turns his concern to the struggle which Timothy must wage against heretics, of which he had already spoken previously (1:3-20). Order in community life and its organization through the offices of bishop and deacon, together with the preservation of the community from false doctrines, are the demands which Paul energetically entreats his disciple to fulfil. But, while he first spoke about the need to keep guard against the teachings of the heretics (1:3-20), now the apostle looks more closely at their purposes regarding the conduct of life. He first warns against being scandalized by their presence in the community. Jesus himself, in fact, had already warned the disciples: "Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, I am he!’ and they will lead many astray." (Mk 13:5-6). The heretics follow "deceiving spirits and diabolical doctrines," since they destroy the truth of the Gospel and the unity of the community. The message and the piety they display are not authentic; they are those "whose consciences are seared with a hot iron," as was then done with slaves branded by fire. The false teachers are in fact slaves of sin, instruments of demons, of Satan. And Paul issues the harshest of judgments against them. Nevertheless, their presence should disturb neither the community nor Timothy: this too comes into God’s plan of salvation. The proposal they make of renouncing marriage, and the exhortation to abstain from certain foods has nothing to do with the Gospel. Paul decisively affirms that "everything created by God is good"; all the gifts of creation can be received with gratefulness and used joyously by Christians. Timothy, on his part, should uphold their correct use by the Christian community. Thus he shall show that the "words of the faith and of the sound teaching" of Jesus are his spiritual "nourishment." With a derogatory tone, Paul calls the doctrines of the false teachers "profane myths and old wives’ tales." Timothy should always show, with increasing clarity, with his words and life, what is essential in Christ’s doctrine, which is summed up in the commandment to love God and neighbour. To this end, adds the apostle, physical effort and training "is of some value," since they confer capacity and health only for earthly life; much more decisive are exercises of piety, which bring us to the future "life to come."
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
