Memorial of Saint John Damascene, priest and Doctor of the Church who lived in Damascus in the eighth century. Prayer for Christians in Syria. Read more
Memorial of Saint John Damascene, priest and Doctor of the Church who lived in Damascus in the eighth century. Prayer for Christians in Syria.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Isaiah 26, 1-6
That day, this song will be sung in Judah: 'We have a fortress city, the walls and ramparts provide safety.
Open the gates! Let the upright nation come in, the nation that keeps faith!
This is the plan decreed: you will guarantee peace, the peace entrusted to you.
Trust in Yahweh for ever, for Yahweh is a rock for ever.
He has brought low the dwellers on the heights, the lofty citadel; he lays it low, brings it to the ground, flings it down in the dust.
It will be trodden under foot, by the feet of the needy, the steps of the weak.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This passage is a hymn of praise and thanksgiving. There are two reasons for this joy and gratitude. On the one hand, the believers are rejoicing at the destruction of the “lofty city,” Babylon, a symbol of the pride and arrogance of the powerful who crush the weak and the poor, and on the other hand, they rejoice at the construction of a “strong city,” Jerusalem, which welcomes the people who have been faithful to the Lord. The city built by God has solid, impregnable walls. But the song urges believers to trust in God alone. He is the true rock in which we should place our trust: “Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord God you have an everlasting rock.” The prophet warns believers that they should be careful about where they place their hope. They should not place their hope on the strength of their walls. Sometimes believers forget this. Sometimes their hearts get twisted, and they rely on walls. They start to think of them as a way to defend their own well-being or even their selfishness. It is easy to build a barrier that pushes our brothers and sisters away and keeps out the poor and weak. So the prophet invites us to keep the doors of our city open always, not to remain closed in our sense of security, but to be open to the world at all times, especially to the poor. This biblical call for the door to remain open -- that believers can go out and also that everyone in need can find a way into the city -- is echoed in the insistent call of Pope Francis for Christians to go out towards all. The city becomes the place where the just and the poor live together, two peoples united and inseparable. Believers and the poor live in this city together, a city which certainly comes from heaven but which has already begun on earth. Any separation that occurs inside of it has disastrous consequences. The prophet writes that the Lord, “has brought low the inhabitants of the height; the lofty city he lays low. He lays it low to the ground, casts it to the dust.” Distance from the poor is distance from God. The image of a city brought down and cast in the dust is harsh but true. It is essential for us to welcome God's revolution, as it happens through Jesus. Mary, the Mother of Jesus, sings of the reversal of the world's logic: “He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly” (Luke 1: 51-52).
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
