Memorial of the Presentation of the Mother of the Lord at the Temple. This feast, born in Jerusalem and celebrated in both the East and the West, remembers both the ancient temple and how Mary offered her life to the Lord. Read more
Memorial of the Presentation of the Mother of the Lord at the Temple. This feast, born in Jerusalem and celebrated in both the East and the West, remembers both the ancient temple and how Mary offered her life to the Lord.
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
Matthew 12,46-50
He was still speaking to the crowds when suddenly his mother and his brothers were standing outside and were anxious to have a word with him. But to the man who told him this Jesus replied, 'Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?' And stretching out his hand towards his disciples he said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The feast of Mary's Presentation at the temple is tied to the dedication of the new church of New St. Mary built in 453 near the temple of Jerusalem. Mary, the "Theotokos" (Mother of God) is the true temple in which the single sacrifice pleasing to God is offered. With this memory we welcome the tradition of the apocryphal proto-gospel of James which narrates the adolescent Mary's consecration to God. The evangelist Matthew relates a Gospel scene which reminds us of the urgency of placing ourselves in the school of Jesus. The passage that may seem hard toward Mary; in truth it is the way that Mary always has followed. We hear that Jesus is in the house and many have come to listen to him. His relatives arrive, with Mary, and they send to call him. The relatives "stay outside," writes the evangelist, obviously indicating something which is not just spatial. Only those that "stay inside" and listen to his word, says Jesus are his true family. The Christian community is always born from the Word of God, and lives in listening to it. All of us must pay heed not to fall into the temptation of presuming to be "relatives" of Jesus, or to think that we do not need to gather to listen to him, almost as if access to him was natural and taken for granted. All told, it is not enough to be part of a group of Christians in order to find salvation. Every day we need to enter "inside" the community to listen to the Gospel as the Church communicates it. The example of Mary, brought to the temple, is a precious example for every Christian community to be a school of communion and love. And this is decisive too for Christian families so that, from the beginning, they commit to communicating the faith to their little ones so that they, like Jesus, can grow in "wisdom, age and grace."
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
