Jn 15: 9-17
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.
I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
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.
Source of true joy
Is there any Gospel reading filled with more beautiful verses? The one that stood out most to me is: “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.”
What is Jesus’ joy? Imagine him hearing, with clarity and certainty, God say at his baptism “You are my son. I love you completely. I am very pleased with you.” The connection is so intimate that Jesus responds “Abba,” an infant’s first word for his father. Jesus’ life then reflects his total, trusting availability to seek God’s will. And Jesus is filled with God’s Spirit, a life-giving force so powerful that he is able to heal, to cure, to liberate. There is a source of true joy! The complete joy that Jesus offers to us, his friends who work to love one another.
—Allain Andry is a spiritual director at St. Peter Catholic Church in Charlotte, NC, the Jesuit parish in the Diocese of Charlotte.
Abba, Father, holy and praised,
Give me, give everyone, this very day, your bread of life.
Lead us, as pilgrims, on the journey to you.
And deliver us from the evil one. Amen
—Allain Andry
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Ignatian spirituality reminds us that God pursues us in the routines of our home and work life, and in the hopes and fears of life's challenges. The founder of the Jesuits, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, created the Spiritual Exercises to deepen our relationship with Christ and to move our contemplation into service. May this prayer site anchor your day and strengthen your resolve to remember what truly matters.
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