Litany of the Saints
O Lord, have mercy on us all
O Lord, have mercy on us all
O Christ, have mercy on us all
O Christ, have mercy on us all
O Lord, have mercy on us all
O Lord, have mercy on us all
Holy Mary, Mother of God
pray with us
Holy Mary of Mercy
pray with us
All you holy Prophets
pray with us
Saint John the Baptist
pray with us
All you holy Evangelists and Apostles
pray with us
Holy disciples of the Lord
pray with us
Saints Peter and Paul
pray with us
Saint Andrew
pray with us
Saint James
pray with us
Saint Bartholomew
pray with us
Saint Mary of Magdala
pray with us
Saint Callistus
pray with us
Saint Cecilia
pray with us
Saint Anthony
pray with us
Saints Cosmas and Damian
pray with us
Saint Basil
pray with us
Saint John Chrysostom
pray with us
Saint Augustine
pray with us
Saint Benedict
pray with us
Saint Scholastica
pray with us
Saint Gregory
pray with us
Saint Giles
pray with us
Saints Cyril and Methodius
pray with us
Saint Adalbert
pray with us
Saint Francis
pray with us
Saint Clare
pray with us
Saint Frances of Rome
pray with us
Saint Philip Neri
pray with us
Saint John XXIII
pray with us
Saint John Paul II
pray with us
Blessed Oscar Arnulfo Romero
pray with us
Holy Bishops and Pastors
pray with us
Holy Monks and Hermits
pray with us
Holy Martyrs
pray with us
Holy Virgins and Widows
pray with us
All you who are poor in spirit
pray with us
All you who are weary and oppressed
pray with us
All you who thirst for justice
pray with us
All you people of goodwill
pray with us
All you saints of this city
pray with us
Brothers and sisters, wherever you may be
pray with us
Free us from sin and death
O Lord, hear our prayer
Free us from violence and injustice
O Lord, hear our prayer
Free us from loneliness and fear
O Lord, hear our prayer
Free us from all anxiety
O Lord, hear our prayer
Free us from every evil
O Lord, hear our prayer
Give us fullness of life
O Lord, hear our prayer
Give freedom to prisoners
O Lord, hear our prayer
Give healing to the sick
O Lord, hear our prayer
Give peace to those who hinder us
O Lord, hear our prayer
Show us your holy face,
and we shall be saved.
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!