May 23, 2017

Jn 16: 5-11

But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts.

Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.

Following Christ

Before I go to bed at night, I examine my hands: I make sure they are empty. This means I have given it all in my day.

Before I wake in the morning, I examine my hands: I make sure they are empty. For this means I am ready to receive it all in my day.

When I follow Christ, I examine my hands: I make sure they are empty and bear his wounds. For now giving and receiving have become one.

—Michael Martinez, SJ, a Jesuit scholastic of the Antilles Jesuit province, writes from Arrupe House, on the campus of Loyola University Chicago.

Prayer

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

—lines from “The Breastplate of St. Patrick”