Memorial of Saint Peter Damian (1007-1072). Faithful to his monastic vocation, he loved the entire Church and spent his life reforming it. Memory of the monks in every part of the world. Read more
Memorial of Saint Peter Damian (1007-1072). Faithful to his monastic vocation, he loved the entire Church and spent his life reforming it. Memory of the monks in every part of the world.
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
Isaiah 58, 1-9a
Shout for all you are worth, do not hold back, raise your voice like a trumpet. To my people proclaim their rebellious acts, to the House of Jacob, their sins.
They seek for me day after day, they long to know my ways, like a nation that has acted uprightly and not forsaken the law of its God. They ask me for laws that are upright, they long to be near God:
'Why have we fasted, if you do not see, why mortify ourselves if you never notice?' Look, you seek your own pleasure on your fastdays and you exploit all your workmen;
look, the only purpose of your fasting is to quarrel and squabble and strike viciously with your fist. Fasting like yours today will never make your voice heard on high.
Is that the sort of fast that pleases me, a day when a person inflicts pain on himself? Hanging your head like a reed, spreading out sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call fasting, a day acceptable to Yahweh?
Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me: to break unjust fetters, to undo the thongs of the yoke. to let the oppressed go free, and to break all yokes?
Is it not sharing your food with the hungry, and sheltering the homeless poor; if you see someone lacking clothes, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own kin?
Then your light will blaze out like the dawn and your wound be quickly healed over. Saving justice will go ahead of you and Yahweh's glory come behind you.
Then you will cry for help and Yahweh will answer; you will call and he will say, 'I am here.' If you do away with the yoke, the clenched fist and malicious words,
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
In the time of Lent we are asked to fast, as we have heard on Ash Wednesday. At the time of the prophetwe are in the last part of the book of Isaiah, that is, right after the Babylonian exilefasting was a solemn and public act which involved the whole community. In itself it expressed the desire and search of a people that wanted to meet their God: “Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways.” And yet the prophet asks himself whether it is possible to fast, to seek penance and reconciliation with the Lord, without justice, without mercy, without love of the poor. It is a question posed to all of us at the beginning of this time. God shows with clarity the kind of fast that he wants. He does so in two parts. First, he explains that purely exterior fasting is not pleasing to him, actually it is useless even if it does fulfil its task; it does not reconcile human beings to God. Then he shows the fasting that he wants. Two series of actions follow. They are composed of three directions and a conclusion that summarizes the others. The first are: “To loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.” These are actions that free people from oppression, from slavery and from submission. The yoke was a sign of slavery and oppression. The last action summarizes the first three; “to break every yoke,” that is: do not oppress anyone, do not use violence against anyone, better yet, commit yourselves to freeing the oppressed. Then three other indications follow: “Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them?” We are now before poor and miserable people, without the means to live, without food, home or clothing. The last phrase - “do not hide yourself from your own kin” makes us wonder who are “your kin”? They are those that were named before, the hungry, the homeless, the naked. They are “those of your flesh,” those are your “true kin.” This is an extraordinary assertion for the Old Testament that will become clearer with the Gospels, starting from the beautiful passage in Matthew when Jesus identifies with “my little brothers and sisters,” the poor (Mt 25:40). It will be exactly in the practice of this fast from ourselves that is expressed in the solidarity with the oppressed and the poor, that each of us can be light for the world and will be healed from our wounds, “Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly.”
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
