Memorial of Porrajamos, the massacre of the Roma and Sinti people by the Nazis during the Second World War. Memorial of blessed Ceferino Gimenéz Malla, a Gitano martyr killed in Spain in 1936. We remember Yaguine and Fodé, two boys 15 an d14 years old from Guinea Conakry, who died because of cold in 1999 while they were trying to fly to Europe where they dreamt to study hidden in the cargo hold of an airplane. Read more
Memorial of Porrajamos, the massacre of the Roma and Sinti people by the Nazis during the Second World War. Memorial of blessed Ceferino Gimenéz Malla, a Gitano martyr killed in Spain in 1936. We remember Yaguine and Fodé, two boys 15 an d14 years old from Guinea Conakry, who died because of cold in 1999 while they were trying to fly to Europe where they dreamt to study hidden in the cargo hold of an airplane.
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
Jeremiah 30,1-2.12-15.18-22
The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, as follows, 'Yahweh, God of Israel, says this, "Write for yourself in a book all the words I have spoken to you. Yes, Yahweh says this: Your wound is incurable, your injury past healing. There is no one to plead your cause; for an ulcer there are remedies, but for you no cure at all. All your lovers have forgotten you, they look for you no more. Yes, I have struck you as an enemy strikes, with cruel punishment (because of your great guilt and countless sins). Why cry out because of your wound? Your pain is incurable! Because of your great guilt and countless sins, I have treated you like this. Yahweh says this: Look, I shall restore the tents of Jacob and take pity on his dwellings: the town will be rebuilt on its mound, the stronghold where it ought to stand. From them will come thanksgiving and shouts of joy. I shall make them increase, they will not decrease; I shall make them honoured, no more to be humbled. Their sons will be as once they were, their community fixed firmly before me, and I shall punish all their oppressors. Their prince will be one of their own, their ruler come from their own people, and I shall permit him to approach me freely; for who, otherwise, would be so bold as to approach me, Yahweh demands? You will be my people and I shall be your God.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Lord says to Jeremiah: "Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you. For the days are surely coming... when I will restore the fortunes of my people... and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their ancestors and they shall take possession of it." This is how the part of the book of the prophet Jeremiah called "the book of consolation" starts. The Lord who loves Israel more than they love themselves, decides to intervene again and free them: "I am going to restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob ... the city shall be rebuilt upon its mound." The people can look at the future with hope: the land that the Lord had given them would return into their possession. The experience of Exodus repeats itself. The question that raises also for us is: would they understand this new intervention from God? It is crucial for believers to listen to the Lord and his Word. He does not keep at a distance. The Lord is not mute. He continues to speak and teach to his people: "But as for you, have no fear, my servant Jacob, ...do not be dismayed, O Israel; for I am going to save you from far away, and your offspring from the land of their captivity." "I am with you... to save you," the Lord assures his people. The Lord's compassion was the great medicine that could cure the deep wound of Israel's betrayal. In order to reassure his people even more the Lord promises a saviour: He "has raised up a mighty saviour for us in the house of his servant David" (Lk 1:69). Jeremiah's prophecy is fulfilled in Jesus, the Messiah King who came from the same people, from the tribe of Judah and from the family of David. Jesus' disciples are the people who belong to the Lord through his covenant of love: "And you shall be my people, and I will be your God." The alliance with the Lord is the medicine that heals and continuous listening daily to the Word of God the light and strength that help the path of peace.
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
