Prayer for the unity of the Churches. Particular memory of the ancient Churches of the Orient. (Syrian Orthodox, Coptic, Armenian, Assyrian) Read more
Prayer for the unity of the Churches. Particular memory of the ancient Churches of the Orient. (Syrian Orthodox, Coptic, Armenian, Assyrian)
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Hebrews 6, 10-20
God would not be so unjust as to forget all you have done, the love that you have for his name or the services you have done, and are still doing, for the holy people of God.
Our desire is that every one of you should go on showing the same enthusiasm till the ultimate fulfilment of your hope,
never growing careless, but taking as your model those who by their faith and perseverance are heirs of the promises.
When God made the promise to Abraham, he swore by his own self, since there was no one greater he could swear by:
I will shower blessings on you and give you many descendants.
Because of that, Abraham persevered and received fulfilment of the promise.
Human beings, of course, swear an oath by something greater than themselves, and between them, confirmation by an oath puts an end to all dispute.
In the same way, when God wanted to show the heirs of the promise even more clearly how unalterable his plan was, he conveyed it by an oath
so that through two unalterable factors in which God could not be lying, we who have fled to him might have a vigorous encouragement to grasp the hope held out to us.
This is the anchor our souls have, reaching right through inside the curtain
where Jesus has entered as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest for ever, of the order of Melchizedek.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
By sending his Son, God intervened in the history of the world in a definitive way, and ensured his enduring presence. The Letter to the Hebrews insists on God's oath, the solemn promise God had made to Abraham and Israel. This oath implied that God would be faithful and committed to carrying out all that he had promised, that is, the salvation of the people that God had chosen as his “own.” The oath that God made to Abraham was a gratuitous act of love. Christians are part of this ancient story. Jesus brought it to fulfilment, without erasing it. This is why the letter to the Hebrews insists on the link with Abraham and the promises the Lord made to the Patriarch. Through Abraham, Melchizedek too is placed within the story of salvation, even though he is not a Jew. We could say that no one can build his or her life outside the context of a larger story. Sometimes we succumb to the temptation of thinking that we are unique and unrepeatable, as if everything started and ended with us. This way of thinking costs us the joy of taking part in the history of a people, the Christian people, but even earlier, of the people of the promise made to Abraham, the people of Israel to whom the disciples of Jesus are particularly bound, because it is through them that the promises reached us. The author of the letter is writing to a community into which had crept doubt and resignation, as well as a sense that their work was not being recognized. Just before this passage, he had written: “For God is not unjust; he will not overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints (i.e. Christians). And we want each one of you to show the same diligence, so as to realize the full assurance of hope to the very end, so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” When we forget the story of love into which we have been placed, we risk letting a desire to claim our rights prevail. This in turn leads to a laziness that brings us far from the “diligence,” the passion for the Gospel of Jesus that is always expected of Christians, as at present Pope Francis never ceases to recall. Let us seize “the hope set before us” so that we too may become bearers of God's promises, of his loving plan for all of humanity, and of his presence, especially in places where suffering and pain mark the existence of men and women. Jesus will never fail to provide what is necessary to those who trust in him, because He is Lord of the Sabbath and of history.
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
