Memorial of Saint Polycarp, disciple of the apostle John, bishop and martyr (+155). Read more
Memorial of Saint Polycarp, disciple of the apostle John, bishop and martyr (+155).
Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Matthew 6,7-15
'In your prayers do not babble as the gentiles do, for they think that by using many words they will make themselves heard. Do not be like them; your Father knows what you need before you ask him. So you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be held holy, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us. And do not put us to the test, but save us from the Evil One. 'Yes, if you forgive others their failings, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours; but if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive your failings either.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Today Jesus gives us his prayer: the Our Father. First he warns us that prayer is not a matter of multiplying our words, as if their number mattered and not the heart that speaks them. He wants to show us the way to pray directly, immediately reaching God's heart. Jesus involves us in his very intimacy with the Father. He is not "lowering" God; instead we are the ones who are lifted up to the very heart of God "in heaven," so that we can call him "Dad." Even though the Father is still in "the highest heavens," he is the one who has loved us forever and who wants our salvation and that of the entire world. And so, it is decisive that Jesus makes us as the fulfilment of the Father's will. And God's will is that no one is lost. No one. This is why Jesus makes us ask: "Your kingdom come." And it may come soon so that finally God's holiness will be recognized and all people will live in justice and peace everywhere, in heaven and on earth. In the second part of the prayer Jesus has us asking the Father to look over our daily lives: we ask him for bread, for our body and our heart. And then he has us daring a very demanding request: "And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." It is a request that might seem difficult and unrealistic; how could we admit that human forgiveness is the model for the divine? In truth, Jesus helps us expressing extraordinary wisdom in prayer. We understand this from the following verses: "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." This language is incomprehensible for a society, like ours, in which forgiveness is rare, if not forbidden, and where resentment is a weed we do not manage to uproot. But perhaps this is the very reason we need to learn to pray more with the "Our Father." It is the prayer that saves us because it makes us the universal fraternity as we turn to God and we invoke him as Father of all.
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
