The Jews celebrate Yom Kippur (Day of Expiation) Read more
The Jews celebrate Yom Kippur (Day of Expiation)
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Galatians 5,18-25
But when you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. When self-indulgence is at work the results are obvious: sexual vice, impurity, and sensuality, the worship of false gods and sorcery; antagonisms and rivalry, jealousy, bad temper and quarrels, disagreements, factions and malice, drunkenness, orgies and all such things. And about these, I tell you now as I have told you in the past, that people who behave in these ways will not inherit the kingdom of God. On the other hand the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control; no law can touch such things as these. All who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified self with all its passions and its desires. Since we are living by the Spirit, let our behaviour be guided by the Spirit
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Christians are "called to freedom," writes Paul. This call of God has pulled them from the evil world (1:4) carrying them into the new creation (6:15). But freedom, if understood falsely, can become "an opportunity for self-indulgence." This is the temptation of those who want to impose themselves on others, who want all to revolve around them. Paul, however, says that freedom is given to us to serve one another: "through love become slaves to one another." Freedom is "to love." Love is the only law of Christians. Indeed, with incredible clarity, the Apostle writes: "For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment: You shall love your neighbour as yourself" (5:14). Paul, however, urges the Christians of Galatia not to "devour" one other. Disputes in fact lead to the destruction of themselves and of the community. The only way to remain in freedom is to love. This means "to live by the Spirit" and avoid the "flesh desires" (5:16-18), that is from egotistical instincts that push us to turn inward. Those who let themselves be guided by self-love end up being its slaves and doing even what they would not want to. In order to explain this, Paul lists fifteen vices among the "works of the flesh": "fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing and things like these. " These works exclude one from the Kingdom of God because they are opposed to love. On the contrary, "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." The opposition that lies between the "works of the flesh" and "the fruit of the Spirit" is the same as that which lies between darkness and light, between chaos and order, between multiplicity and unity. This is why any reconciliation between the two plans is not possible. Believers cannot be torn within themselves: their lives must be a service of love. The fruit of love is "joy" (Paul will report to the elders of Ephesus Jesus’ saying: "There is more joy in giving than in receiving"), "peace" and then "patience, kindness and generosity." "Faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" close the enumeration. Believers who live inspired by love become leaven in a new world which God inaugurated with Jesus. Acting with love, Christians imitate Jesus because they "have crucified the flesh" and "live by the Spirit", acting with love.
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
