Reflection for May 18 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? Whichever it is, what is important is we put our heart in our prayers before God. For a prayer that connects with God is a prayer that originates from our hearts. 

We read in our gospel for this Tuesday that Jesus is praying before God. 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 God. We pray for our personal petitions before Him. For example prayers for strength to face our daily challenges. Prayers for enlightenment, prayers for us not to have any form of hatred in our hearts and so forth.

We also become one with God when we pray. We also allow God to heal us from our sickness most especially emotional and spiritual sickness. This is for the reason that through our prayers we allow God to dwell and move within us. Notice that after we pray we feel light and we feel better.

Let us beseech God to heal us of anything that ails us. And let us beseech God to give us the grace of connection with Him whenever we pray. Why? Because life without prayer and connection with God in this world is pure emptiness. – Marino J. Dasmarinas