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
Genesis 1,20-2,4
God said, 'Let the waters be alive with a swarm of living creatures, and let birds wing their way above the earth across the vault of heaven.' And so it was. God created great sea-monsters and all the creatures that glide and teem in the waters in their own species, and winged birds in their own species. God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, 'Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters of the seas; and let the birds multiply on land.' Evening came and morning came: the fifth day. God said, 'Let the earth produce every kind of living creature in its own species: cattle, creeping things and wild animals of all kinds.' And so it was. God made wild animals in their own species, and cattle in theirs, and every creature that crawls along the earth in its own species. God saw that it was good. God said, 'Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild animals and all the creatures that creep along the ground.' God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them. God blessed them, saying to them, 'Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven and all the living creatures that move on earth.' God also said, 'Look, to you I give all the seed-bearing plants everywhere on the surface of the earth, and all the trees with seed-bearing fruit; this will be your food. And to all the wild animals, all the birds of heaven and all the living creatures that creep along the ground, I give all the foliage of the plants as their food.' And so it was. God saw all he had made, and indeed it was very good. Evening came and morning came: the sixth day. Thus heaven and earth were completed with all their array. On the seventh day God had completed the work he had been doing. He rested on the seventh day after all the work he had been doing. God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on that day he rested after all his work of creating. Such was the story of heaven and earth as they were created. At the time when Yahweh God made earth and heaven
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The second part of the creation first narrative culminates in God making man and woman, and establishing the Sabbath. In fact, the entire narrative leads up to this final part. When God is about to create human beings, he expresses the solemn decision in the plural "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness... So God created humankind in his image... male and female he created them." We immediately note God's choice: human beings carry God's likeness and therefore great dignity; highlighting "male and female" together indicates a diversity and an equality ("man" in Hebrew is a term that refers not only to males but to all human beings drawn from the Earth). One could say that only together do they resemble God. Man does not exist alone, and woman does not exist alone; a person exists who needs the other one and the two together resemble God. The divine blessing maintains human beings in a special relationship with God. He allows them to have a dominion over creation, which is never absolute, as everything depends on God and not on them. The creation of human beings concludes with this statement: "God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good." Only good, only life comes from God; evil comes from the evil one. God is so pleased with his creation of humanity that he says that "it was very good" and not just "good" as with his other works. God was not finished with creation after making man and woman; or better, the fulfilment of creation was the Sabbath: "So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it..." On the seventh day, God brings about three actions: first he completes creation, then blesses and consecrates the seventh day. What does this mean? Without the Sabbath, a day in which human beings recognize God's creation and worship him, creation is not complete and something essential is missing. We understand the meaning of the Sabbath for the Jews and of Sunday for Christians: when men and women do not recognize the work of God and do not see his presence, something fundamental is missing to creation, and fullness cannot be reached. Men and women were not created to remain closed in on themselves, but they need to be open to God, to his time and to his design of love. This is the true reason for celebrating and praising God. This is why God not only blesses man and woman but also "hallows" the seventh day, thus making of it God's day in human time.
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!
