In the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere the Community of Sant'Egidio prays for the sick. Read more
In the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere the Community of Sant’Egidio prays for the sick.
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
Galatians 1,6-12
I am astonished that you are so promptly turning away from the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are going over to a different gospel- not that it is another gospel; except that there are trouble-makers among you who are seeking to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we ourselves or an angel from heaven preaches to you a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let God's curse be on him. I repeat again what we declared before: anyone who preaches to you a gospel other than the one you were first given is to be under God's curse. Whom am I trying to convince now, human beings or God? Am I trying to please human beings? If I were still doing that I should not be a servant of Christ. Now I want to make it quite clear to you, brothers, about the gospel that was preached by me, that it was no human message. It was not from any human being that I received it, and I was not taught it, but it came to me through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Paul opens his Letter to the "churches of Galatia" - the central region of present Turkey - by pointing out in a special way that his authority as an apostle comes not through his own initiative, but "through a revelation of Jesus Christ." His preaching, therefore, reflects the very authority of Jesus and therefore of "God the Father". Paul adds that the letter was written with "all the members of God’s family who are with me," as if to say that pastoral ministry is never detached from the community and its life. The solemn opening of the letter responds to the serious danger in which these communities were living. Some bad teachers, in fact, not only questioned Paul’s apostolic authority, but also emptied the heart of the "Gospel of Christ" that he had preached, namely, that salvation is given only by faith in Jesus, the only Saviour. Paul knows that this Gospel is so central in Christianity that if he, or even an angel or anyone else, came to preach a different message they should be "accursed." This firmness stems from Paul’s concern to preserve the integrity of the "Gospel of Christ." In this way the apostle shows that he himself is the first to obey what he received from Jesus. Therefore what the bad teachers want people to believe about him in order to discredit him, saying that he wants merely "human approval," is radically false. The apostle claims to want only God’s approval, precisely because he preaches only what he has received as a gift from Jesus. Several times, he clarifies that his ministry is all about "serving" the Gospel of Christ, as he also repeated to the Corinthians: "Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they should be found trustworthy"(1 Cor 4:1ff). This example of Paul is given to each believer and even more so to every minister of the Gospel: we all have to follow it if we want to be faithful disciples of Jesus.
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
