Today’s Theme for Prayer – Jesus Unites Me to His Body
“For the Souls in Purgatory – Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord”
How Do I Grow in Ability to Share and Receive
If you keep your body free from disease and sensual pleasure it will help you to serve what is more noble. . St. Maximus the Confessor
Friendship’s Command, Grace’s Power: Loving as Jesus Loves
Jn 15:12-17
This is my commandment: love one another as I love 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 no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.
Grace Prayed For
Lord Jesus, I ask for the grace to truly understand and live out your commandment to love as you love. Grant me the courage to embrace this call, to open my heart fully to sanctifying grace and allow your divine life to transform me and equip me to partner in the renewal of creation. Help me to deepen my friendship with you, that rooted in your love and empowered by your grace, I may bear fruit that remains.
Reflection
Beloved one, come close and listen to the heart of Jesus in these words. “Love one another as I have loved you.” This isn’t a suggestion, not a gentle invitation, but a commandment uttered with the full weight of divine love. Think about the love Jesus shows us – a love that bends down, washes feet, heals the sick, embraces the outcast, and ultimately stretches out on a cross. This is the measure, the standard, the very essence of how we are called to love. It can feel overwhelming, can’t it? To love like that?
But Jesus doesn’t leave us adrift in this vast ocean of love. He calls us friends. Not servants, bound by duty and distance, but friends, drawn into the inner circle of his heart. He shares with us what the Father has shared with Him. This intimacy, this friendship, is the very ground from which our ability to love grows. Think of sanctifying grace as a gentle rain falling upon dry land, bringing life and nourishment where it is needed most. Sanctifying grace is God’s own life poured into our souls, transforming us from the inside out, making us capable of the very love Jesus commands.
Just as rain nourishes the earth and allows life to flourish, sanctifying grace quietly works within us, constantly offered, always available if we open our hearts. Let’s embrace sanctifying grace as the divine power that empowers us to live out the commandment to love. This love isn’t meant to stay within us, stagnant and still. No, it’s meant to grow, to reach out, to bear fruit. Jesus says, “I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain.” What is this fruit? It is the fruit of love lived out – forgiveness extended, justice pursued, peace cultivated in our hearts and in the world around us. It is participating with Jesus in the very renewal of all creation that He inaugurated through His resurrection.
Our baptismal promises are not just words spoken long ago. They are a living commitment to walk in this love, to allow sanctifying grace to shape us, to send us out. And the courage? The strength to fulfill this mission? It comes from this very friendship with Jesus and is fueled by sanctifying grace. He has chosen us, equipped us with His very own divine life through grace, and promised that whatever we ask in His name, in alignment with His will of love, the Father will grant. So, immerse yourself in the sanctifying grace offered to you in every moment, knowing you are loved, you are chosen, you are a friend of Jesus, and you are empowered to love as He loves, renewing the world one act of grace-filled love at a time.
Growing in Intimacy/Union with Jesus
This passage beautifully reveals Jesus’ desire for deep intimacy with us and highlights that this intimacy is the very source of sanctifying grace. By calling us “friends” and sharing what He has heard from the Father, Jesus invites us into a relationship where we receive the gift of His divine life – grace. Reflecting on this passage helps us to understand that intimacy with Jesus is not just about feeling close to Him, but about receiving the sanctifying grace that empowers us to become more like Him and to live out His commandments. The command to “love one another” becomes less of a burden and more of a natural outflow of this intimate friendship and the transformative power of sanctifying grace, inspiring us to live in a way that reflects His heart and renews the world.
When Time Allows Reflect on the Posts in Library and Musings
Sharing
Jesus last words on Earth were to his disciples, can be found in Matthew Chap 28 when Jesus told his disciples, “Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
Jesus calls all of us to share in his redemptive mission here on Earth. I would ask you to share this Scripture reflection with your family, your friends and your acquaintances, and then share it with a couple of individuals that you may may not be comfortable sharing with, keeping in mind always the words of Jesus, And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age
Author was assisted by AI in the drafting of this Post