The prayer for peace is held in the basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere Read more
The prayer for peace is held in the basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere
Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Daniel 9,4-10
I pleaded with Yahweh my God and made this confession: 'O my Lord, God great and to be feared, you keep the covenant and show faithful love towards those who love you and who observe your commandments: we have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly, we have betrayed your commandments and rulings and turned away from them. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our chief men, our ancestors and all people of the country. Saving justice, Lord, is yours; we have only the look of shame we wear today, we, the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the whole of Israel, near and far away, in every country to which you have dispersed us because of the treachery we have committed against you. To us, our kings, our chief men and our ancestors, belongs the look of shame, O Yahweh, since we have sinned against you. And it is for the Lord our God to have mercy and to pardon, since we have betrayed him, and have not listened to the voice of Yahweh our God nor followed the laws he has given us through his servants the prophets.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
The words of the prophet Daniel begin with a sincere confession of the infidelity of the entire people who acknowledges their sin and feels ashamed: "Righteousness is on your side, O Lord, but open shame, as at this day, falls on us" (v. 7) Both those who remained in their own land and those who are in exile confess it. All in the same way, with no distinction of class, are finally aware of their grave sin that somehow accompanies the tragedies that have befallen on them. Certainly breaking the covenant would require a condemnation from God. The prophet is aware of it, but he becomes daring in prayer: he speaks to God and intercedes for the people so that He may have compassion of them in his great mercy. The confession of sins certainly opens the way for the request for forgiveness. The prophet identifies with the entire people and intercedes for the salvation of Jerusalem. His attitude reminds Abraham's who invokes God for the salvation of the city of Sodom and Moses' who faces God as the intercessor of the people. In the difficult moments of history, we need always to question ourselves about our unfaithfulness and responsibilities. When the gift of peace is wasted, people need to feel like Daniel, the shame of moving far from the Lord. The Lord will hear Daniel's prayer and indicate to him a complete time "to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity" (see Dan 9:24), seventy weeks after which there will be the jubilee forgiveness. Trust in the mercy of God is the reason for the efficacy of Daniel's prayer. It is what Jesus states many times to his disciples and to us.
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
