Welcoming the Holy
Here we invite you to take time for yourself in personal prayer. The following spiritual reflection offers words and images which we hope will evoke for you an experience of God.
By: Sister Ruth Maier
“Bless the Lord, my soul, all my being bless God’s holy name.”
Opening Prayer
Loving God, You guard and protect those who are one with Your risen Son, Jesus, the Christ. Consecrate us in the truth, calling us to everlasting joy in Your presence. We ask this through Jesus, who lives with You and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.
Scripture
John 17: 11b – 19
Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying, “Holy Father, keep them in Your name that You have given to 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 to me, I guarded them and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the Scriptures 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. 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 anymore than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As You sent me into the world, so I send them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.
Reflection
Today the Church concludes the Easter Season with Jesus prayer to His Father at the Last Supper.
He reports to His Father all that He has done on behalf of His disciples; how He has drawn them into the same unity Jesus enjoys with His Father; how He has protected and guarded them; how He made known to them God’s Word and God’s love. He prays that His Father will “keep them from the evil one” and will “consecrate them in truth,” as they are sent forth to continue His mission.
Likewise, these seven weeks of the Easter Season have been preparing us for our mission as baptized believers to proclaim the Good News of Jesus to our world.
As those first Christians took charge of the mission after Jesus ascended to His Father - to “make disciples of all nations … teaching them to observe all the Jesus had commanded” as we have been reading in the Acts of the Apostles, so we must take charge in our time to continue the mission to make God’s Word and Love know to all today.
How is God’s Word made known to me?
How do I recognize God’s love in my life?
How will I continue the mission this week?
Closing Prayer
Creator God, You reveal Yourself to us through Your love, for we know that we only love at all because You loved us first. Through the gift of Your Son, help us grow in the love You have entrusted to us on behalf of Your people and Your world. We make our prayer in Jesus’ name. Amen.