Day 351: The Prayer of the Hour of Jesus (2746-2751)

• It’s Day 351!!

• ARTICLE 3: THE PRAYER OF THE HOUR OF JESUS

• This is the HIGH PRIESTLY PRAYER of Jesus Christ in John Ch 17

• It is a highlight and a summary of the beauty of this prayer of Jesus

• Paragraph 2746 says, “When ‘his hour’ came, Jesus prayed to the Father. His prayer, the longest transmitted by the Gospel, embraces the whole economy of creation and salvation, as well as his death and Resurrection. The prayer of the Hour of Jesus always remains his own, just as his Passover ‘once for all’ remains ever present in the liturgy of the Church.”

• Take some time today and read Jesus’ prayer in John Ch 17

• Let’s pray!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we give you praise and glory. We thank you. We thank you for leading us to this moment. We thank you for bringing us to this day, and we ask you to please receive our thanks. Receive this day as our gift to you. Receive our sufferings, our joys. Receive our pains and our strengths, our victories and our failures. Lord God, receive all of them today. Receive our struggles today as we offer them to you. Receive our hearts, and unite our hearts to the heart of your Son, Jesus. By the Power of your Holy Spirit, Lord God, fill us with your Spirit. Give us your grace in this moment so that we can be an image of your Son to this world by the Power of your Holy Spirit, that we may glorify you in everything that we say and do and lead all of our brothers and sisters to know who you are and to love you even more truly. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• If you have the chance, go back and read Jesus’ prayer in John Ch 17 on your own time

• Paragraph 2746 says, “When ‘his hour’ came, Jesus prayed to the Father. His prayer, the longest transmitted by the Gospel, embraces the whole economy of creation and salvation, as well as his death and Resurrection. The prayer of the Hour of Jesus always remains his own, just as his Passover ‘once for all’ remains ever present in the liturgy of the Church.”

• Paragraph 2748 says, “In this Paschal and sacrificial prayer, everything is recapitulated in Christ: God and the world; the Word and the flesh; eternal life and time; the love that hands itself over and the sin that betrays it; the disciples present and those who will believe in him by their word; humiliation and glory. It is the prayer of unity.”

• Jesus says in John Ch 17, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you…”

• Here is the only Begotten Son

• The Son of God by nature

• We are adopted sons and daughters of God by Baptism

• As Jesus prays as the Son, we get to pray as sons and daughters

• “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you since you have given Him authority over all people to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.”

• Philippians Ch 2 says, “Have in your own minds the mind of Jesus Christ who, though in the form of God, did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at, but humbled himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of human beings. So that at Jesus’ name, every knee shall bend in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. And every tongue proclaim Jesus Christ is Lord. To the glory of God the Father.”

• (Has anyone counted how many times in 351 days that Fr. Mike has said the word INCREDIBLE?)

• When the Son is glorified, the Father is glorified

• Everything Jesus does, He does for the Father’s glory

• That is what Jesus wants

• Jesus wants God the Father to be glorified

• Jesus wants us to have eternal life

• “You have given me authority over all people to give eternal life to all whom you have given. And this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent.”

• “While 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.”

• Jesus loves them, even the one who is going to betray Him

• Jesus even specifically prays for YOU in John 17:20, “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word.”

• It is very very clear that Jesus is praying FOR YOU

• This is also a prayer of UNITY

• Let’s listen to Fr. Mike talk about Mass on his campus…

• At the Last Supper, where Jesus gave us the Eucharist, He also specifically prayed that we would not be divided

• Jesus prayed that we would be one

• “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word. That they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me, and I in you, may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. And the glory that you have given me, I have given them so that they may be one as we are one. I in them and you in me, that they may be completely one so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

• Jesus is begging His Father that we would be one

• We are cool with not being one

• We are cool with being divided for the most part until we get to that moment in Mass where we realize we are not supposed to be divided like this

• We are meant to be unified

• We experience the pain of that when we can’t extend Holy Communion to non-Catholics

• We have to transform that pain into prayer

• We take a moment of silence and pray for the heart of Jesus that we have the same heart in our hearts that Jesus has

• The heart that longs for unity

• The heart that begs the Father for unity

• We are trying to let Jesus’ prayer become our prayer

• We are trying to let Jesus’ heart that longs for unity be our heart that longs for unity

• Why?

• “So that the world may know that you have sent me, and you have loved them even as you have loved me.”

• Paragraph 2750 says, “By entering into the holy  name of the Lord Jesus we can accept, from within, the prayer he teaches us: ‘Our Father!’ His priestly prayer fulfills, from within, the great petitions of the Lord’s Prayer: concern for the Father’s name; passionate zeal for his kingdom (glory); the accomplishment of the will of the Father, of his plan of salvation; and deliverance from evil.”

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• I cannot WAIT…