Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Acts 1,12-14
So from the Mount of Olives, as it is called, they went back to Jerusalem, a short distance away, no more than a Sabbath walk; and when they reached the city they went to the upper room where they were staying; there were Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Jude son of James. With one heart all these joined constantly in prayer, together with some women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The apostles no longer see Jesus by their side. And yet he is present. Indeed, it is his presence that makes them gather together and it is his name that identifies them. They are for all purposes Jewish: the go to the temple, the keep the Sabbath, they sing the psalms, and yet they are not the same as before. They observe all the Jewish traditions, but their heart is now the Gospel. This is the first image of the Christian community that appears in the Acts of the Apostles. And, as in a photo, they can all be clearly recognized. The Christian community is not an anonymous group, an assembly of people who do not know each other, a group in which one person does not know what the others are doing, and where everyone goes off on his or her own. The first community is made up of brothers and sisters who call each other by name. Fraternity is essential for every community that claims to be a disciple of Jesus. Luke gives the names of each member. Jesus had called them one by one by name and had built a personal relationship with each one, based on understanding and trust. The Christian Community is a real family. The disciples have a Father, the Father in heaven, and a mother, the mother of Jesus, who stands among them. In this unique family they all stay together and help each other. They are truly different from how people normally live in our cities, which is often arid and dry, with no relationships, more like a desert than a garden. Jesus had taught the disciples to love each other, to respect each other, and to help each other and take care of those who were in need. Their strength flowed from their communal prayer, which they could not live without. Prayer brought them together, unifying them with a strong, we could even say, unbreakable bond. That is why, the author writes, “All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer.” Prayer that is done together has a special strength, as Jesus himself had said, “Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.” Prayer is the believers’ first and most important work.
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
