As the Father has loved me, I have loved you all.
You must stay in my love.
If you keep my commands , you will stay in my love –
as I have kept my Father’s commands, and I stay in his love.
Thank you, dear Jesus,
for all you have given me,
for all you have taken away from me,
for all you have left me.
Thomas More (c.1478-1535)
Stay in me, and I [will stay] in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it stays in the vine, so neither can you [bear any fruit] unless you stay in me.
I am the vine, you are the branches.
The one who stays in me and I in them, bears much fruit, since without me you can do nothing at all.
Unless someone stays in me, they will be thrown out like branches and dry up, then people will gather them and throw them into the fire and they will be burned up.
If you stay in me, and my words stay in you, whatever you want, ask for, and it will be done for you all.
In this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and you become my disciples.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, union;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy,
For your mercy and for your truth’s sake. Amen
I am the true grapevine and my Father is the vine-dresser.
Every branch in me, not bearing fruit he takes off
and every one that bears fruit he prunes clean
so that it might bear more fruit.
You are already pruned clean because of the word
which I have spoken to you.
O Lord Jesus Christ,
stay beside me to defend me,
within me to guide me,
before me to lead me,
and above me to bless me,
that with you and in you,
I may live, and move and have my being,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
(unknown)
Peace I leave with you all, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives, I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled nor be afraid. You heard me say to you ‘I am going away and I am coming [back] to you/’ If you loved me you would have rejoiced that I go to the Father, because the Father is greater than me.
Now then I have spoken to you before it happens, so that when it happens you may come to believe. I will not speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, but he has no hold on me. But so that the world knows that I love the Father, just as the Father commanded me, so I do. Get up, let us go from here.
Lord in your presence I do not concern myself with great matters
or with things to hard for me
But I become still and calm
like a child on it’s mother’s breast
my God, you hold me close to you
like a mother
so that my soul is quieted within me
Psalm 131
Judas (not the Iscariot) said to him: ‘Lord, how can it be that you are going to reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?’
Jesus answered: ’If someone loves me, they will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them, and make a dwelling with them. The one who doesn’t love me, does not keep my teaching. And the word, which you hear is not my own but the Father’s who sent me.’
I have said these things to you, as I remain with you. The ‘advocate’, the Holy Spirit, who the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all everything and remind you of everything which I have said to you.’
Lord, you have given me so much,
I ask for one more thing –
a grateful heart.
George Herbert
If you love me, you will keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, then consequently he will give to you another ‘advocate’, to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see him and neither does it know him. You know him, because he stays with you all, and will be within you all.
I will not leave you orphaned; I will come to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will go on seeing me, because I live, and you will live too. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you.
The one who has my commands and keeps them – that person is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and I will reveal myself to them.
Be thou a bright flame before me,
Be thou a guiding star above me
Be thou a smooth path below me
Be thou a kindly shepherd behind me
Today – tonight -forever
Amen.
St Columba
Philip said to him: ‘Lord, show us the Father and it is enough for us.’
Jesus said to him: ‘For such a long time I have been with you all, but you have not come to know me, Philip, have you?’ The one who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father?” Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words which I say to you I do not say from myself. The Father staying in me, does his works. Believe me, that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. But if, not believe because of those works.
Truly, truly I tell you, the one who believes in me- that one will do the works which I do and they will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name I will do it, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything, in my name, I will do it.’
O Love, O God who created me, in your love recreate me.
O Love, who redeemed me,
fill up in me whatever part of your love
has fallen into neglect within me.
O Love, O God, who first loved me,
grant that with my whole heart,
and with my whole soul,
and with my whole strength,
I may love you.
Gertrude the Great
Do not let your heart be troubled.
You all believe in God and you believe in me.
In my Father’s house there are many rooms. If not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you all? And when I go and prepare a place for you all, I will come and will take you to my Father’s house, so that where I am you will be too.
And you know the way to where I am going.
Thomas said to him: ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’
Jesus said to him: ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. Nobody comes to the Father except by me. If you have known me, you will also know my Father, and from now on you know him, and you have seen him.
Teach us, good Lord,
to serve thee as thou deservest;
to give and not to count the cost;
to fight and not to heed the wounds;
to toil and not to seek for rest;
to labour and not to ask for any reward,
save that of knowing that we do thy will,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
St Ignatius
Simon Peter said to him: ‘Lord, where are you going?’
Jesus answered: ‘Where I am going, you cannot follow me now. But you will follow later.’
Peter said to him: ‘Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.’
Jesus replied: ‘Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you: the cock will not crow until you deny me three times’.
Grant, Lord,
that we may hold to you without parting,
worship you without wearying,
serve you without failing;
faithfully seek you,
happily find you,
and forever possess you,
the only God,blessed now and for ever.
Amen
St Anselm
So when he went out, Jesus said:
‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified [[by the Father]],
and God in him.
If God has revealed his glory in him
God will also glorify him in himself,
and he will glorify him at once.
Little children, I am with you for only a little while longer.
You will seek me,
and just as I said to the Jewish leaders
“Where I go to you cannot come”,
now I say to you as well.
I give you a new command:
love one another
– as I have loved you,
you too are to love one another.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another.