Remembrance of Mar Gregorios Ibrahim and Paul Yazigi, Syrian-orthodox and Greek-orthodox patriarchs in Aleppo in Siria, who were kidnapped on April 22, 2013. With them we remember also Father Paolo Dall'Oglio and we pray for all those who were kidnapped. Read more
Remembrance of Mar Gregorios Ibrahim and Paul Yazigi, Syrian-orthodox and Greek-orthodox patriarchs in Aleppo in Siria, who were kidnapped on April 22, 2013. With them we remember also Father Paolo Dall'Oglio and we pray for all those who were kidnapped.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Christ is risen from the dead
and will die no more.
He awaits us in Galilee!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Acts 2,36-41
'For this reason the whole House of Israel can be certain that the Lord and Christ whom God has made is this Jesus whom you crucified.' Hearing this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, 'What are we to do, brothers?' 'You must repent,' Peter answered, 'and every one of you must be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise that was made is for you and your children, and for all those who are far away, for all those whom the Lord our God is calling to himself.' He spoke to them for a long time using many other arguments, and he urged them, 'Save yourselves from this perverse generation.' They accepted what he said and were baptised. That very day about three thousand were added to their number.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Christ is risen from the dead
and will die no more.
He awaits us in Galilee!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
"Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified." These words are some of the first affirmations of Peter to the crowd that had gathered on the day of Pentecost in front of the upper room. Later the apostle Paul will say that the Word of God is like a double-edged sword that cuts to the depths of the heart and does not leave it indifferent. This is what happened to the first listeners: they were cut to the heart by the Gospel of Easter and immediately asked Peter a simple but fundamental question: "What should we do?" The Word of God causes a new history and urges to a new step in one's life. The apostle's answer was clear as well: "Save yourself from this corrupt generation." The apostle does not condemn the present times in the usual and tried way, possibly being nostalgic of the past times. Nor does he recite a catechism formula. He proposes the Gospel as a power of change. Indeed the Gospel of Easter is like leaven that transforms society, energy that changes the hearts and creates a new fraternity. That day the Church was born: the Word of God - which Luke proposes as historical subject - started gathering around the risen Jesus, the first group of men and women who decided to become Jesus' disciples. We can say that this is what has repeated from generation after generation and that also today needs to become true. The Church always starts and grows always in this way. Indeed the Church is nor a reality that perpetuates herself in the same way as a world organization. It is decisive for the Gospel to be proclaimed again, for men and women to listen to it and allow the Word of God to "pierce" their hearts.
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
