A reading from the holy Gospel according to John 17:1-11a
Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you, just as you gave him authority over all people, so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him. Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ. I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do. Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began.
" I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them. And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you."
REFLECTION: " I Pray for them."
In this lovely discourse, we are allowed to listen into the prayer of Jesus to God. This has been called the "high priestly prayer" of Jesus. He speaks as an intercessor for us, with words directed solely to the Father. Jesus is petitioning for our life, our eternity with God and his wish that we would be with him in union with the Father.
Jesus honored his Father through his obedience and freely offered up his life out of obedience to the Father and his love for us. Imagine, the Son of God, petitioning on our behalf, and making the ultimate sacrifice of his life to redeem us from the slavery to sin, gluttony, anger, perversity, and to keep us away from the clutches of the evil one. He knows his earthly time is about to come to an end and Jesus does not want any of those whom the Father chose and loved to be lost. He wants to glorify God thru his sacrificial death so that we can partake in that what the Father wants for us--to have eternal life, the very life of God within us.
PRAYER:
Dear Lord , help us take time to pray. Show us how to love to pray. Amen
" Love to pray. Take the trouble to pray. Prayer opens your heart until it is big enough to hold and keep God. We must know Jesus in prayer before we can see him in the broken bodies of the poor." Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Pray for PAPA priests, pray daily the rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet.
God Bless
