SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTER

Wednesday

Readings

First Reading
Acts 20:28–38

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 68:29–30, 33–35a, 35bc–36ab

Gospel
Jn 17:11b–19

Meditation on Today’s Readings

Commentators often note that the prayer of Jesus resembles the prayer he taught his disciples. Today’s excerpt has at least three points of contact with the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus addresses God as Father, as he taught his disciples to do. He calls upon the Father’s holy name and petitions the Father to deliver his disciples from the evil one.

Paul’s prayer in Acts also echoes the prayer of Jesus. As both men prepare to leave those entrusted to their care, they voice their pastoral concerns. They worry that those they so carefully guarded will come to harm, that some may be lost (Jesus) or go astray (Paul). They recognize the grave dangers that threaten their communities, that “the world hated them” (Jesus), that “savage wolves…will not spare the flock” (Paul). So they pray. Jesus asks the Father to “consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth”—; and Paul commends them “to God and to that gracious word of his that can…give you the inheritance among all who are consecrated.” For Jesus and for Paul, safety in a hostile world lies in being holy.

The copyright for the Sunday Missal Introductions is:
Copyright (c) 2001, Daughters of St. Paul
The copyright for the Weekday Missal Introduction is:
Copyright (c) 2002, Daughters of St. Paul