Feast of Joachim and Anna, ancestors of the Lord. Remembrance of all the elderly who lovingly communicate their faith to the youth. Memorial of Mary, a mentally ill woman who died in Rome in 1992. With her we remember all who are mentally ill. Read more
Feast of Joachim and Anna, ancestors of the Lord. Remembrance of all the elderly who lovingly communicate their faith to the youth. Memorial of Mary, a mentally ill woman who died in Rome in 1992. With her we remember all who are mentally ill.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Sirach 44,1.10-15
Next let us praise illustrious men, our ancestors in their successive generations. But here is a list of illustrious men whose good works have not been forgotten. In their descendants they find a rich inheritance, their posterity. Their descendants stand by the commandments and, thanks to them, so do their children's children. Their offspring will last for ever, their glory will not fade. Their bodies have been buried in peace, and their name lives on for all generations. The peoples will proclaim their wisdom, the assembly will celebrate their praises.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The 'famous men' protagonists of this passage from the book of Sirach are, in the Jewish tradition, the 'men of piety', hassidim. In a certain sense, God has continued to govern history through the figures of these men who, through faith in God and his Word, have made love and piety grow in the world. A precious memory of them has been preserved, a religious key for the people of Israel, but also for our humanity. The writer Primo Levi, a surviving witness of the Shoah, said: "All those who forget their past are condemned to repeat it." In our times, as we see the witnesses of the two world wars disappear, the theme of memory is reminded to us by Scripture as something fundamental. On the fourth Sunday of July, just around the time of the feast of Saints Joachim and Anne, the parents of Mary, Pope Francis wanted to establish the 'World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly,' so that we do not lose the memory of the faith passed on to us by them. Let us therefore also honour the elderly, 'famous men' whose generations have experienced the power of evil and war. May their memory inspire us to be witnesses of peace, and in the alliance between young and old, may the communication of faith continue. In memory, history becomes a liturgy of praise to God who has done wonders. All generations are in God's heart and the memory of Israel remembering the fathers makes us realise that it is God who first remembers us.
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
