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
Deuteronomy 31,1-8
Moses went and spoke to all Israel as follows, 'Today, I am one hundred and twenty years old, and can no longer act as leader. Yahweh has told me, "You shall not cross this Jordan." Yahweh your God himself will lead you across, he himself will destroy and dispossess these nations confronting you; Joshua too will lead you across, as Yahweh has said. Yahweh will treat them as he has treated Sihon and Og the Amorite kings and their country -- he destroyed them. Yahweh will put them at your mercy, and you will deal with them exactly as prescribed by the commandments which I have laid down for you. Be strong, stand firm, have no fear, do not be afraid of them, for Yahweh your God is going with you; he will not fail you or desert you.' Moses then summoned Joshua and, in the presence of all Israel, said to him, 'Be strong, stand firm; you will be the one to go with this people into the country which Yahweh has sworn to their ancestors that he would give them; you are to be the one who puts them into possession of it. Yahweh himself will lead you; he will be with you; he will not fail you or desert you. Have no fear, do not be alarmed.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Moses is truly the man of God. Everything he did was always in obedience to the Lord, who led him in the deliverance of his people from slavery in Egypt. Those who listen to God also loves his people, because to bind one's life to the Lord means to love and defend his own, those whom he chooses and in so many ways entrusts to us. To lead the Lord's people to the promised land, Moses faced the harshness of the desert, the fear of the Egyptian army, the unbelief of his people, their choice to make idols, the bitterness of nostalgia. He always continued to lead the people because he never ceased to listen to God and to obey his law first. He came close to the promised land, but did not enter it. The Lord had foretold it to him. Moses does not despair, he does not claim something for himself, he does not claim the role or some right. He will not possess that land for which he had gone the whole way. At the end of his life, Jesus indicates a beatitude for believers: blessed are those who, though they have not seen, will believe. Those who believe already have everything! Moses always believed the promise of the Lord. He does not need to possess it. He knows that everything is his gift and that God himself will lead his people. Often people mistake gift for possession, they tie what is asked of them to their own person, they get caught up in protagonism that ends up tying everything to themselves. Moses asks his people to continue trusting God, to face the new challenges. Joshua will lead the people. But always because the Lord is before him on the way. Moses' strong serenity, his freedom from possession, which so many conditions the lives and choices of disciples and men, make him a true believer.
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
