A Beautiful Prayer

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying:
“Holy Father, keep them in your name
that you have given me,
so that they may be one just as we are one.
When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me,
and I guarded them, and none of them was lost
except the son of destruction,
in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
But now I am coming to you.
I speak this in the world
so that they may share my joy completely.
I gave them your word, and the world hated them,
because they do not belong to the world
any more than I belong to the world.
I do not ask that you take them out of the world
but that you keep them from the Evil One.
They do not belong to the world
any more than I belong to the world.
Consecrate them in the truth.
Your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world,
so I sent them into the world.
And I consecrate myself for them,
so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”
John 17:11b-19 (NAB)

Prayer Reflection

Dear Father we have read so many accounts on behalf of your love for us. Today we have a prayer of deep love for us and for you. A prayer of consecration by your Son. It is the beauty of Jesus' protection in this prayer against the evil one that speaks just as loudly. Who in this world has not been touched by Jesus' prayers and deliverance from sin in their need to repent. How often do we call out Jesus' name when we feel out of control with our lives. Not at peace. Jesus brings us peace, he frees us from evil, he restores truth in our lives. Many have stopped believing in this truth and began believing in the world. Does that truth reveal the depths of how much we rely on the world rather than Jesus when we no longer use the sacrament of penance. It is there where we find freedom from sin and evil, it is there where we begin our journey back to Jesus and to you dear Father. Let our hearts open to the love of God and his son Jesus, let us be cleaned of sin and find the consecration that belongs to our hearts.

The Great Debate

Of that multitude therefore, when they had heard these words of his, some said: This is the prophet indeed. Others said: this is the Christ. But some said: doth the Christ come out of Galilee? Doth not the scripture say: that Christ cometh of the seed of David, and from Bethlehem the town where David was?

So there arose a dissension among the people because of him. And some of them would have apprehended him: but no man laid hands on him. The ministers therefore came to the chief priests and the Pharisees. And they said to them: why have you not brought him? The ministers answered: never did man speak like this man. The Pharisees therefore answered them: are you also seduced?

Hath any one of the rulers believed in him, or of the Pharisees? But this multitude, that knoweth not the law, are accursed. Nicodemus said to them, (he that came to him by night, who was one of them:) Doth our law judge any man, unless it first hear him, and know what he doth? They answered, and said to him: art thou also a Galilean? Search the scriptures, and see, that out of Galilee a prophet riseth not.

And every man returned to his own house.
John 7:40-53 (Douay-Rheims Bible)

Prayer Reflection

Dear Father one can almost associate this reading with todays political arena. Some would argue about the candidates and the place they came from too. Do they know the law? Do they follow the law, is another big question. But their law that is followed is a guideline to live, made from people but taken from a source that first started with your Word. The scriptures, the very Word of God. We too, in this time frame, question our political candidates of their worth. They too have to follow in the way of right living or suffer the consequences. Only difference, Jesus came to bring love from the Father, to show us how to do His Will. Not pick and choose who he's going to help in order to win votes. He helped them all, from the lowest to the highest. Why are we different in how we serve each other.