Monday, May 18, 2015

Reflection for May 19, Tuesday of the Seventh Week of Easter; John 17:1-11a

Gospel: 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.
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Reflection:
What is the usual method of our prayers? Is it spontaneous prayer or we follow a certain pattern when we pray? Whichever it is, what is important is we put our hearts in our prayers before God. For a prayer that connects to the heart of God is a prayer that originates from our hearts.

We read in our gospel for this Tuesday that Jesus is praying to His God His Father. It is a personal prayer for Himself and at the same time a prayer also for His disciples and the people that He dearly loved.

If Jesus prayed to God, we too ought to pray also to both of them. We pray for our personal petitions before them, for example prayers for strength to face our daily challenges. Prayers to lighten the loads that we carry, prayers for us not to store any form of hatred in our hearts and so forth.

When we pray we also unknowingly allow God to heal us because through our prayers we allow God to dwell in us. Notice that after we pray from our hearts where we don’t say a word yet we develop a connection with God. We feel light, we feel better and refreshed. Why? Because this is the miraculous effect of our prayers before God.

Let us beseech Jesus to heal us of anything that ails us. And let us beseech God to give us the gift of connection with Him and His Father whenever we pray. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

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