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
Hebrews 10,1-10
So, since the Law contains no more than a reflection of the good things which were still to come, and no true image of them, it is quite incapable of bringing the worshippers to perfection, by means of the same sacrifices repeatedly offered year after year. Otherwise, surely the offering of them would have stopped, because the worshippers, when they had been purified once, would have no awareness of sins. But in fact the sins are recalled year after year in the sacrifices. Bulls' blood and goats' blood are incapable of taking away sins, and that is why he said, on coming into the world: You wanted no sacrifice or cereal offering, but you gave me a body. You took no pleasure in burnt offering or sacrifice for sin; then I said, 'Here I am, I am coming,' in the scroll of the book it is written of me, to do your will, God. He says first You did not want what the Law lays down as the things to be offered, that is: the sacrifices, the cereal offerings, the burnt offerings and the sacrifices for sin, and you took no pleasure in them; and then he says: Here I am! I am coming to do your will. He is abolishing the first sort to establish the second. And this will was for us to be made holy by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ made once and for all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The author of the letter brings us back to the centrality of the Christian mystery: it is not our offerings that save us, even if we multiply them, but only Christ's sacrifice. The love that drove Jesus to give his life for all, even to death on the cross, is the cause of our salvation. Already the psalmist suggested this when predicting the very incarnation of Jesus: "Sacrifices and offerings you did not desired, but a body you have prepared for me" (Ps 40). This quote recalls the 'body' of Jesus in the Eucharist. The Apostle Paul presents the Lord's Supper in this perspective, which is a proclamation of the "death of the Lord" (1 Cor 11:26) and its saving power. Ancient sacrifices did not save from sins because they did not transform the human heart, while participation in the 'body' of Christ in the Eucharist transforms the believer into the very body of Jesus who, risen, is seated at the right hand of God. As the apostle writes: "It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me" (Gal 2:20). And Jesus, from the throne of glory in heaven, waits for "his enemies to be set as footstools" (Ps 110:1). His resurrection from the dead has defeated death and the prince of evil forever. And united with Jesus we await the full manifestation of victory. And the Christian community, every time it gathers for the Eucharist, celebrates this victory. Knowing, however, that we still await the 'perfection' to which we have been called: full communion with Christ and among our brothers and sisters. But already now we are experiencing its first fruits, waiting for the fullness of love.
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
