FINISHED
PALINSESTO
Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Deuteronomy 26,16-19
'Yahweh your God commands you today to observe these laws and customs; you must keep and observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. 'Today you have obtained this declaration from Yahweh: that he will be your God, but only if you follow his ways, keep his statutes, his commandments, his customs, and listen to his voice. And today Yahweh has obtained this declaration from you: that you will be his own people -- as he has said -- but only if you keep all his commandments; then for praise and renown and honour, he will raise you higher than every other nation he has made, and you will be a people consecrated to Yahweh, as he has promised.'
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
We are faced with one of the central points of the theology of Deuteronomy and the books that follow, from Joshua to the Second Book of Kings. The whole history of Israel is marked by the vision of the close relationship that God has chosen to have with Israel and demands to be reciprocated. The Lord chose that little people to 'consecrate' them to his name; that is, he 'set them apart' (this is the meaning of the word 'holy') from the other peoples of the earth to make them his own people, as we read in chapter seven of Deuteronomy: "It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you-for you were the fewest of all peoples. It was because the Lord loved you" (Deut 7:7-8). The covenant with God implicates fidelity to the Law, as it clearly is written: "He will be your God; and for you to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, and his ordinances, and to obey him." Everything hinges upon listening, on mutual listening. Israel's profession of faith, still today recited by all Jews, begins with the words: "Hear Oh Israel: The Lord is your God, one is the Lord" (Deut 6:4). To observe the laws, to walk the ways of God, becomes possible only if we have an attitude of listening. The time of Lent is a suitable time to put ourselves before the Lord and listen to his word of life. Only in this perspective will the conversion of our hearts and the entrusting our lives to God be possible, so that he may be the only Lord of our lives.
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
