Feast of Saint Lawrence, deacon and martyr (†258). He pointed to the poor as the true treasure of the Church. Memorial of those who serve them in the name of the Gospel. Read more
Feast of Saint Lawrence, deacon and martyr (†258). He pointed to the poor as the true treasure of the Church. Memorial of those who serve them in the name of the Gospel.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Ezekiel 1,2-5.24-28
On the fifth of the month -- it was the fifth year of exile for King Jehoiachin- the word of Yahweh was addressed to the priest Ezekiel son of Buzi, in Chaldaea by the River Chebar. There the hand of Yahweh came on him. I looked; a stormy wind blew from the north, a great cloud with flashing fire and brilliant light round it, and in the middle, in the heart of the fire, a brilliance like that of amber, and in the middle what seemed to be four living creatures. They looked like this: They were of human form. I also heard the noise of their wings; when they moved, it was like the noise of flood-waters, like the voice of Shaddai, like the noise of a storm, like the noise of an armed camp; and when they halted, they lowered their wings; there was a noise too. Beyond the solid surface above their heads, there was what seemed like a sapphire, in the form of a throne. High above on the form of a throne was a form with the appearance of a human being. I saw a brilliance like amber, like fire, radiating from what appeared to be the waist upwards; and from what appeared to be the waist downwards, I saw what looked like fire, giving a brilliant light all round. The radiance of the encircling light was like the radiance of the bow in the clouds on rainy days. The sight was like the glory of Yahweh. I looked and fell to the ground, and I heard the voice of someone speaking to me.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Starting from today, the Liturgy presents excerpts from the prophet Ezekiel. Very little is known about him. He was a married man and a member of a priestly family that had been formed in the shadow of the Temple of Jerusalem, but he lived out his ministry as a prophet mostly in the Babylonian diaspora. In this situation the prophet had the task of helping the people of Israel to understand again the covenant with God. Ezekiel's vocation is a call that occurs in Israel's new condition. God always speaks through human history to transform it from a condition of slavery into a history of salvation. Ezekiel describes a series of stunning images that show the profound upheaval happening to him. In truth, what Ezekiel describes is similar to that of every believer, though of course in a different way for each one. The call to conversion always implies a profound change of life. The mission Ezekiel is called to fulfil is that of serving God's plan of salvation for His people. The loftiness of this call makes the prophet "fall on his face", signifying the sense of greatness of the vocation to which the Lord calls prophets. It will be the same for Jesus' disciples, he who will say: "The one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these" (Jn 14:12). In the loftiness of this call we are invited to rediscover the "fear of the Lord" that is not to belittle the great task the Lord entrusts to his disciples.
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
