Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Dal libro di Ester 4,17k.17l.17s
Anche la regina Ester cercò rifugio presso il Signore, presa da un'angoscia mortale. Si tolse le vesti di lusso e indossò gli abiti di miseria e di lutto; invece dei superbi profumi si riempì la testa di ceneri e di immondizie. Umiliò duramente il suo corpo e, con i capelli sconvolti, coprì ogni sua parte che prima soleva ornare a festa. Poi supplicò il Signore e disse:
"Mio Signore, nostro re, tu sei l'unico! Vieni in aiuto a me che sono sola e non ho altro soccorso all'infuori di te, perché un grande pericolo mi sovrasta.
Metti nella mia bocca una parola ben misurata di fronte al leone e volgi il suo cuore all'odio contro colui che ci combatte, per lo sterminio suo e di coloro che sono d'accordo con lui.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
The book of Esther recounts the story of a Hebrew woman, who for her beauty was chosen as the queen to the king of the great Persian Empire. The author presents the situation of the Hebrew people in the great diaspora with the prejudices that surround it because of their diversity and particularity of the faith they practiced. Haman, an official of the king, explains well the opinion the Assyrians had for the Hebrews: “There is a certain people scattered and separated among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not keep the king’s laws, so that it is not appropriate for the king to tolerate them” (3:13). We cannot but read in these words the traces of that anti-Semitism which down through the centuries has provoked so much trouble to the Hebrew people including the drama of the Shoah. What can Esther, a woman, do before so much hostility that reaches even the will to exterminate the people of Israel? What can she do, a poor woman, before violence and wars? Esther turns in prayer to her God and to the God of her fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac and Jacob. Often in the Bible prayer takes up the line of history because in prayer one can reread one’s own existence in the light of love and the wondrous works of God. No believer is left overtaken by the vortex of events; he or she is always inside a design of love that preceded him or her and that prayer helps to rediscover. So Esther reminds God himself how much he has done for her ancestors: “Lord, as long as I can remember, my family has told me how you chose Israel from all the nations and how in ancient times you singled out our ancestors to be your people forever.” Her prayer develops in three points. First she invokes help for herself, aware of her limitations: “My Lord and King, only you are God. I am alone, and I have no one to turn to but you.” In prayer we discover our need for salvation as well as our weakness, but we trust in the strength that comes from God. Then she asks God to help her find the words to speak to the “lion,” the enemy who wants to eliminate Israel. And in closing, “And now, spare your people from the hands of our enemies; turn our grief into joy and our suffering into salvation.” In the weakness of a woman the strength of prayer emerges, a prayer that will conquer evil and free her people from the hands of their enemies.
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
