Patrick Comerford
Easter is a 50-day season, beginning on Easter Day (20 April 2025) and continuing through Ascension Day until the Day of Pentecost or Whit Sunday next Sunday (8 June 2025). This week began with the Seventh Sunday of Easter (Easter VII). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today temembers the Martyrs of Uganda (1885-1887 and 1977).
Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, reading today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
John 17: 1-11 (NRSVA):
1 After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. 5 So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.
6 ‘I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; 8 for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. 11 And 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.’
Today’s Reflection:
As I was saying in my reflections on Sunday, we are, in some ways, caught in the church calendar in an in-between time, between Ascension Day, last Thursday [29 May 2025], and the Day of Pentecost next Sunday [8 June 2025].
The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (John 17: 1-11) follows Christ’s ‘Farewell Discourse’ at the Last Supper (John 14: 1 to 16: 33), and Christ has just ended his instructions to his disciples, which conclude with the advice, ‘In the world you face persecution But take courage; I have conquered the world!’ (John 16: 33).
We now read from his prayer to the Father (John 17: 1-26), in which he summarises the significance of his life as the time for his glory – his Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension – has arrived.
This prayer is often referred to as the High Priestly Prayer, as it includes many of the elements of prayer a priest offers when a sacrifice is about to be made: glorification (verses 3-5, 25), remembrance of God’s work (verses 2, 6-8, 22, 23), intercession on behalf of others (verses 9, 11, 15, 20, 21, 24), and a declaration of the offering itself (verses 1, 5).
In the Orthodox Church, this passage is also read on the Seventh Sunday of Easter (1 June 2025), a day remembering the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in the year 325. We are celebrating the 1,700th anniversary of that council this year and its formulation of the Nicene Creed. That council condemned the heresy of Arianism that taught that the Son of God was created by the Father and that there was a time when the Son of God did not exist. Christ’s words here bear witness to his divinity and to his filial relationship with the Father.
Verses 1-2: the Father gives this glory to the Son, and this adds to the Father’s glory because of the authority the Father has given to the Son over all people, with the promise of eternal life.
Verse 3: this eternal life is knowing the Father and Christ, who has been sent by the Father.
Verses 4-5: Christ glorifies the Father by finishing the work he has been given, and he is being restored to glory in the Father’s presence, a glory Christ had in God’s presence before the world existed.
Verse 6: Christ has made God’s name known in the world, and those who have heard him and have been obedient to the word of God.
Verses 7-8: the disciples now know that the Father is the source of all that the Christ has been given, they know that he has been sent from the Father, and that the Father sent him into the world.
Verse 9: Christ’s petitions are on behalf of his followers.
Verse 10: Those who follow Christ are committed to God’s care.
Verse 11: Looking forward to the time after his departure – after his Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension – Christ now asks the Father to protect the disciples in the world, and prays that they may have a unity that reflects the unity of the Father and the Son … ‘that they may be one, as we are one.’
Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 3 June 2025):
The new edition of Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), covers the period from 1 July to 20 November 2025. The theme in the prayer diary this week (1-7 June) is ‘Volunteers’ Week’ and was introduced on Sunday by Carol Miller, Church Engagement Manager, USPG.
The USPG prayer diary invites us to prayer today (Tuesday 3 June 2025):
Heavenly Father, thank you that you call us to serve you in big and small ways. With worshipful hearts, help us to see how we can be a light to you today.
The Collect:
O God the King of glory,
you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ
with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven:
we beseech you, leave us not comfortless,
but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us
and exalt us to the place where our Saviour Christ is gone before,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Eternal God, giver of love and power,
your Son Jesus Christ has sent us into all the world
to preach the gospel of his kingdom:
confirm us in this mission,
and help us to live the good news we proclaim;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Risen, ascended Lord,
as we rejoice at your triumph,
fill your Church on earth with power and compassion,
that all who are estranged by sin
may find forgiveness and know your peace,
to the glory of God the Father.
Yesterday’s Reflections
Continued Tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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