Faith Daily | 1 June 2022

PRAYER of the DAY - APBA p 519

O God,

you withdraw from our sight

that you may be known by our love:

help us to enter the cloud where you are hidden,

and to surrender all our certainty

to the darkness of faith

in Jesus Christ.

Amen

GOSPEL for the Day: John 17: 11-19

11And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. 12While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. 13But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. 14I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 15I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. 16They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 17Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

GOSPEL REFLECTION: Mary Rose

Jesus continues to pray for his disciples and what a loving and heartfelt prayer it is. He knows he is shortly to die and after the resurrection leave this earth (although it is doubtful that the disciples have come to an acceptance of all he has so clearly told them) and they will be exposed to all the dangers, temptations and persecutions the world will subject them to.

But here he shows his love for his disciples and understands that when he is not with them to support and protect them he asks the Father to continue this protection so they may continue their ministry in the world. He has seen their human weaknesses, and when he is arrested even Peter, whom he has chosen to be the rock on which to build his church, denies him out of fear despite his resolute aim to remain with him.

He has been able to guard them and only one of them was lost who he says was destined to be lost so the scripture would be fulfilled that is that he die for the atonement of the sins of all.

He asks that they remain in the world but be protected from evil; to set them apart for the ministry of preaching the gospel which Jesus has delivered to them and which they are now to teach others as they go out in the world. The coming of the Holy Spirit will infuse in them sanctity and wisdom to continue their work.

FINAL PRAYER New Zealand, Anon. “Bread of Tomorrow”

Loving God,

Open our hearts,

so that we may feel the breath and play of your Spirit.

Unclench our hands

so that we may reach out to one another,

and touch and be healed.

Open our lips

that we may drink in the delight and wonder of life.

Unclog our ears

to hear your agony in our inhumanity.

Open our eyes

so that we may see Christ in friend and stranger.

Breathe your Spirit into us,

and touch our lives with the life of Christ.

Amen.