Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Romans 8, 12-17
So then, my brothers, we have no obligation to human nature to be dominated by it.
If you do live in that way, you are doomed to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the habits originating in the body, you will have life.
All who are guided by the Spirit of God are sons of God;
for what you received was not the spirit of slavery to bring you back into fear; you received the Spirit of adoption, enabling us to cry out, 'Abba, Father!'
The Spirit himself joins with our spirit to bear witness that we are children of God.
And if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, provided that we share his suffering, so as to share his glory.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The human condition is often caught between pride and fear: we have a strong desire to affirm ourselves, but we are equally afraid of not being able to dominate those around us. The life that results is not attractive either for us or for others. Pride and fear bind men and women; they lead us to create a society composed of people abandoned in loneliness, orphans without any point of reference and therefore more easily preyed upon by violence and exploitation. Every time we turn in on ourselves, we strengthen our fear of others and consequently our tendency to set ourselves in opposition to others in order to defend ourselves. The Lord has come to our aid, giving us his spirit of liberty and making us his children, so that we will not fall back into the slavery of fear. Indeed, none of Jesus’ disciples can say that he or she is an orphan or abandoned. On the contrary, the disciples are radically taken away from loneliness and welcomed into the family of God, into a home where they are recognized, loved, helped, accompanied, and corrected. Indeed, salvation means being taken out of the power of evil and loneliness and becoming a part of the people of the Lord. In one of the fundamental texts of Vatican II, the Constitution of the Church, we read that God did not want to save human beings one by one, but by establishing them as a people, a "family" where everyone can speak to the Father with complete trust, the trust of a child who can call the Lord, "dad," "abba." This is the essence of our salvation. Our status as children will never end; rather, it is the source of our joy. Those who refuse to be children condemn themselves to the slavery of evil. By remaining children, we also become heirs of the promises of God and his glory.
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
