Daily Reflection | Gospel Reading | RVA

THE WORD

Ac 22,30; 23,6-11 / Jn 17,20-26

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, “I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.

Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.”

IN OTHER WORDS

“Please pray for me!” Very often we are requested by others to pray for them. As a priest, everyday I am asked by individuals to pray for their good health, fast recovery, success in exams or safe trip etc... Request for prayers is very common among us. Pope Francis also made this request when he was with the Yolanda survivors, “Please pray for me!” It is not only they who need his prayers and blessings but he also needs their prayers. Even St. Paul asks his ock to pray for him so that he may be safe and successful in his mission: “I urge you, friends, by our Lord Jesus Christ… join me in praying fervently to God for me. Pray that I may be kept safe from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to God’s people there” (Rom 15: 30-31).

We need to pray for one another. St. Paul gives us an example of praying for others: “I thank my God for you every time I think of you; and every time I pray for you all, I pray with joy” (Phil 1:3).

Praying for others is one of the noble acts of a true Christian. Yes, all of us are in need of prayers and we also need to support, console and help one another through our prayers. Praying for others is also one way of showing our love, care and concern for their well being.

In the gospel today, Jesus prays for his disciples. He prays for their safety and successful mission after he would leave them and go back to his Father. He knows that they are weak, worried and frightened. He earnestly intercedes for them with his Father and commends them to his mercy and protection. Jesus continues to do the same for you and for me. He knows that we too are weak, worried and frightened due to various vicissitudes of life. He earnestly intercedes for us his flock. St. John says, “…but if anyone does sin, we have someone who pleads with the Father on our behalf - Jesus Christ, the righteous one” (I John 1:1).

• Fr. Deva Savariyappan, SVD | DWCB, Bangued, Abra

The Word in other words 2016

An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.

	Production : Fr. Carlos Maria de Guzman, Jr., SVD and Staff of Logos Publications
	Cover Design : Malou E. Domingo
	Liturgical Calendar : Fr. Atilano Corcuera, SVD
	Production Consultant : Fr. Gerardo del Pinado, SVD
	Scriptural Texts : New American Bible and Daily Roman Missal
	Cover artwork based on photos by Fr. Bar Fabella, SVD
	Published by : Logos Publications, Inc. 1916 Oroquieta St., Sta. Cruz, Manila
	Email Address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
	Telephone : +63 2 711 1323
	Fax : +63 2 732 273
	Copyright © 2015 Society of the Divine Word

 

THE WORD

Ac 20, 28-38 /Jn 17, 11-19

Jesus, raising his eyes to heaven, said, “And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.  Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are. When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely. I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.

“I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.  Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”

IN OTHER WORDS

Today’s Gospel contains the prayer of the merciful Jesus to the Father to defend and take good care of us in his behalf. But this prayer of the Lord will be completed when we do our part. That is why at the same time, the gospel reminds us that each one of us has the responsibility to believe by observing the values that Jesus taught us. As Christians, we believe in good and evil, and we always choose the good, because we believe in what is right. The first letter of St. John 4:15 tells us, “Those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in them and they in God.” It is an invitation to each one of us that if we put our faith in Christ, and in His love, we are brought into the fellowship with God. If we recognize that Jesus is God, if we receive in our hearts His words and put them into practice, we can reach the fullness of life.

In today’s world that is far advanced and commercialized, many Christians have never fully committed their lives to Jesus Christ. They feel empty because they persist to have their own way of living. Many are vague and uncertain about their spiritual states; some are negligent and others are spiritually lazy. As a Christian in the modern world, what can I do to ful ll the prayer of Jesus in my life, in my family and in my community?

• Fr. Aureenhor Ian Nercua, SVD | Argentina

The Word in other words 2016

An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.

	Production : Fr. Carlos Maria de Guzman, Jr., SVD and Staff of Logos Publications
	Cover Design : Malou E. Domingo
	Liturgical Calendar : Fr. Atilano Corcuera, SVD
	Production Consultant : Fr. Gerardo del Pinado, SVD
	Scriptural Texts : New American Bible and Daily Roman Missal
	Cover artwork based on photos by Fr. Bar Fabella, SVD
	Published by : Logos Publications, Inc. 1916 Oroquieta St., Sta. Cruz, Manila
	Email Address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
	Telephone : +63 2 711 1323
	Fax : +63 2 732 273
	Copyright © 2015 Society of the Divine Word

 

THE WORD

Ac 20,17-27 / Jn 17,1-11

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 he 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.”

IN OTHER WORDS

One of the reasons why Jesus allowed John the Baptist to baptize Him despite John’s reluctance was to convey to all of us that he is “Emmanuel” (God is with us), that despite his being divine, he proved that he is not a distant God but that he is a God who is with us and among us.

Thus, the Baptism of Jesus was an event that correlates well in the Gospel today particularly with his “connecting” with the Father. Such an encounter is primarily to tell his Father that the decision to send Him to the world because of so great a love of God for humanity (cf John 3:16) was not in vain. Jesus became word incarnate, He became the Word made esh and made his dwelling among us, He became one among us except sin because that was his vocation: to do the will of his Father.

Although the last part of the Gospel signals the “return” of Jesus to the Father, it is significantly a manifestation of how God in Jesus willingly and humbly sacrificed his life so that we would have life and have it to the full. One challenge of the Gospel today is how we can be active partakers of that love of Jesus and share it to others.

• Fr. Jun Javines, SVD | USC, Cebu

The Word in other words 2016

An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.

	Production : Fr. Carlos Maria de Guzman, Jr., SVD and Staff of Logos Publications
	Cover Design : Malou E. Domingo
	Liturgical Calendar : Fr. Atilano Corcuera, SVD
	Production Consultant : Fr. Gerardo del Pinado, SVD
	Scriptural Texts : New American Bible and Daily Roman Missal
	Cover artwork based on photos by Fr. Bar Fabella, SVD
	Published by : Logos Publications, Inc. 1916 Oroquieta St., Sta. Cruz, Manila
	Email Address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
	Telephone : +63 2 711 1323
	Fax : +63 2 732 273
	Copyright © 2015 Society of the Divine Word

 

THE WORD

Ac 19,1-8 / Jn 16,29-33

Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are talking plainly, and not in any figure of speech. Now we realize that you know everything and that you do not need to have anyone question you. Because of this we believe that you came from God.” Jesus answered them, “Do you believe now. Behold, the hour is coming and has arrived when each of you will be scattered to his own home and you will leave me alone. But I am not alone, because the Father is with me. I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.”

IN OTHER WORDS

 “I have told you this, so that you might have peace in me.”  Life can be so stressful and troublesome, as many of us surely have realized. We see many of our brothers and sisters going around with faces lined with worry, and shoulders stooped as if laden with heavy burdens. And then we may have seen others going around smiling and cheerful, as if they had no cares in the world. But if we get to know them better, we nd out that they have also their share of problems, frustrations, and burdens. For such people, the admonition of Jesus is realized:  “In the world you will have trouble, but take courage…I have conquered the world.”

It is a display of complete trust in God when we lift up to Him everything that is bothering us.  We trust that if he will not remove our burdens, he will give us the strength to carry them. It is the conviction that God knows what we are going through and that in the end everything will be all right. It is an act of complete surrender to God’s will when we accept all that is happening in our life. When we do this, we can begin to experience peace. It is the peace that removes all anxieties, removes all fear. Peace is also when we believe that everything is according to God’s will, and that it will all end up well.

• Fr. Gil Alejandria, SVD | CT, Manila

The Word in other words 2016

An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.

	Production : Fr. Carlos Maria de Guzman, Jr., SVD and Staff of Logos Publications
	Cover Design : Malou E. Domingo
	Liturgical Calendar : Fr. Atilano Corcuera, SVD
	Production Consultant : Fr. Gerardo del Pinado, SVD
	Scriptural Texts : New American Bible and Daily Roman Missal
	Cover artwork based on photos by Fr. Bar Fabella, SVD
	Published by : Logos Publications, Inc. 1916 Oroquieta St., Sta. Cruz, Manila
	Email Address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
	Telephone : +63 2 711 1323
	Fax : +63 2 732 273
	Copyright © 2015 Society of the Divine Word