Reading 1 Acts 20:17-27
of the Church at Ephesus summoned.
When they came to him, he addressed them,
“You know how I lived among you
the whole time from the day I first came to the province of Asia.
I served the Lord with all humility
and with the tears and trials that came to me
because of the plots of the Jews,
and I did not at all shrink from telling you
what was for your benefit,
or from teaching you in public or in your homes.
I earnestly bore witness for both Jews and Greeks
to repentance before God and to faith in our Lord Jesus.
But now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem.
What will happen to me there I do not know,
except that in one city after another
the Holy Spirit has been warning me
that imprisonment and hardships await me.
Yet I consider life of no importance to me,
if only I may finish my course
and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus,
to bear witness to the Gospel of God’s grace.
“But now I know that none of you
to whom I preached the kingdom during my travels
will ever see my face again.
And so I solemnly declare to you this day
that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you,
for I did not shrink from proclaiming to you the entire plan of God.”
Responsorial Psalm PS 68:10-11, 20-21
or:
R. Alleluia.
A bountiful rain you showered down, O God, upon your inheritance;
you restored the land when it languished;
Your flock settled in it;
in your goodness, O God, you provided it for the needy.
R. Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Blessed day by day be the Lord,
who bears our burdens; God, who is our salvation.
God is a saving God for us;
the LORD, my Lord, controls the passageways of death.
R. Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia Jn 14:16
I will ask the Father
and he will give you another Advocate
to be with you always.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Jn 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.”
A FINISH THAT SHINES
"I put no value on my life if only I can finish my race and complete the service to which I have been assigned by the Lord Jesus." –Acts 20:24
Jesus focused on finishing. In today's Gospel, He tells His Father: "I have given You glory on earth by finishing the work You gave Me to do" (Jn 17:4). When Jesus faithfully completed His suffering on the cross, He took the occasion, despite His pain, to exclaim: "Now it is finished" (Jn 19:30). Finishing what He started was important to Jesus.
St. Paul also focused on finishing, saying: "I give no thought to what lies behind but push on to what is ahead. My entire attention is on the finish line as I run toward the prize to which God calls me – life on high in Christ Jesus. All of us who are spiritually mature must have this attitude" (Phil 3:13-15). Near the end of his life, Paul exclaimed: "I have finished the race" (2 Tm 4:7). Finishing what He started was important to Paul (Acts 20:24).
Starting to serve the Lord but not finishing tarnishes the image of both God and us. Jesus says: "If one of you decides to build a tower, will he not first sit down and calculate the outlay to see if he has enough money to complete the project? He will do that for fear of laying the foundation and then not being able to complete the work; for all who saw it would jeer at him, saying, 'That man began to build what he could not finish' " (Lk 14:28-30).
The Pentecost novena is half-finished. Let's pray intensely, finish strongly, and joyfully receive the Spirit on Pentecost.
| PRAYER: | Father, bring Your work in me to completion (Phil 1:6). |
| PROMISE: | "Blessed day by day be the Lord, Who bears our burdens; God, Who is our Salvation." –Ps 68:20 |
| PRAISE: | St. Damien gave his life serving his Shepherd's lost sheep, becoming one of them. "There is no greater love than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends" (Jn 15:13). |
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