Prayer for the unity of Christians. Particular memory of the Christian communities in Europe and the Americas Többet
Prayer for the unity of Christians. Particular memory of the Christian communities in Europe and the Americas
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
Hebrews 8,6-13
As it is, he has been given a ministry as far superior as is the covenant of which he is the mediator, which is founded on better promises. If that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no room for a second one to replace it. And in fact God does find fault with them; he says: Look, the days are coming, the Lord declares, when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah, but not a covenant like the one I made with their ancestors, the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt, which covenant of mine they broke, and I too abandoned them, the Lord declares. No, this is the covenant I will make with the House of Israel, when those days have come, the Lord declares: In their minds I shall plant my laws writing them on their hearts. Then I shall be their God, and they shall be my people. There will be no further need for each to teach his neighbour, and each his brother, saying 'Learn to know the Lord!' No, they will all know me, from the least to the greatest, since I shall forgive their guilt and never more call their sins to mind. By speaking of a new covenant, he implies that the first one is old. And anything old and ageing is ready to disappear.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
We are inside a new covenant, of which the Lord Jesus has become the mediator. The covenant is often spoken of in the New Testament: God offers the patriarchs and the people of Israel a covenant of friendship that makes him unique among all peoples. This promise to Israel and the Jewish people is neither annulled nor revoked, but definitively renewed in Jesus and, through him, extended to all the peoples of the earth. Everyone can now have access to this special relationship of God with humanity. No one is any longer excluded from God's friendship. Quoting the Apostle Paul, John Paul II reminded a group of Jews of the 'never revoked' God's covenant with the Jewish people. In a way that is mysterious to us, a special relationship remains between God and Israel that has not been abolished by the covenant established in Jesus Christ with all humankind. In this sense, we must read the reference to the new covenant that came about in the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is manifested in a lofty manner every time the Eucharist is celebrated. The priest utters the very words of Jesus: "This is the cup of my blood for the new and everlasting covenant." The power and novelty of salvation brought about by the Lord's death and resurrection is inscribed within the entire history of salvation: from creation to the parousia. We accept the newness of the relationship with Jesus as an invitation to renewal and conversion, for the salvation of the world.
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!
