Category: Time to Pray

  • John 8:52-59 Abraham and I

    So the Jewish leaders said ‘Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets too, yet you say “If someone keeps my teaching, they will never ever experience death.” Are you greater than our father, Abraham, who was mortal?’ What is more the prophets died. Who are you making yourself out to be?’  

    Jesus answered: ‘If I glorify myself, my glory amounts to nothing. It is my Father who is the one who glorifies me – about  whom you say  “He is our God”. And yet you do not know him. 

    ‘If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like yourselves. But I know him and keep his word. Abraham, your father was overjoyed at the prospect of seeing my day, and he saw it and rejoiced.’

    Then the Jewish leaders said to him ‘You are not yet 50, and you have seen Abraham, have you?’

    Jesus said to them: ‘Truly, truly I say to you before Abraham was born, I am.’

    So they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus hid himself and left the temple.

    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

  • John 8:48-51 Shame and glory

    The Jewish leaders responded: ‘Don’t we rightly say that you are a Samaritan and you are possessed by a demon? 

    Jesus answered: ‘I am not possessed by a demon, but I honour my Father; you treat me shamefully. I do not seek my own glory. There is one who seeks it and judges. 

    Truly, truly I say to you if someone  keeps my teaching, they will never ever see death.’

    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

  • John 8:38-47 Who’s the Daddy?

    (I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. But you seek to kill me, because my word finds no room in you.  That which I have seen at the Father’s side, I have spoken, yet you do what you have heard from your father. )

    They answered him ‘Our father is Abraham!’ 

    Jesus said to them: ‘If you are children of Abraham, you would be doing the things Abraham did.  But now you seek to kill me, a man who has spoken the truth to you, which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You are doing the works of your father.’

    They said to him ‘We were not born immorally – without a father. We have one father, God himself. ‘

    Jesus said to them: ‘If God was your father, you would love me, for I have come from God and I am now here. For I have not come on my own initiative but rather he sent  me. 

    ‘Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot grasp my teaching. You are from your father, the Devil, and you are intent on doing what your father desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies. 

    ‘But because I speak the truth , you do not believe me.  Who among you can prove me guilty of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me? The person who belongs  to God hears the words of God. Because of this – that  you do not hear – you do not belong to God.’

    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)

  • John 8:31-36 Slaves and Sons

    So Jesus spoke to those Judeans who had believed in him: ‘If you stay in my word, truly you show that you are my disciples. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free

    And they said to him :’We are descendants of Abraham, and we have never been enslaved to anyone. “How then do you say that we will become free?”’

    Jesus answered them: ‘Truly, truly I say to you that everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. But the slave does not stay in the household for life, rather the son stays forever. So if  the Son frees you, you will really be set free.  

    I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. But you seek to kill me, because my word finds no room in you. ‘

    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

  • John 8:21-30 Who are you?

    So again he said to them ‘I am going away and you will seek me, and you will die with your sin on you. Where I am going to, you will not be able to come’

    Then the Jewish crowd said: ‘He is not going to kill himself, is he? –  because he is saying ”‘Where I go you cannot come?’”

    And he said: ‘You are from the realm below, and I am from the realm above. You are from the world, I am not from this world. That is why I have spoken to you because you will die with your sins on you. For if you do not come to believe that “I am He”, you will die in your sins.’

    They said to him ‘Who are you?’

    Jesus said to them: ‘….just what I have told you in the beginning. I have to say many things about you and to judge, but the one who sent me is truthful, and I am telling the world, I have heard from him.’

    They did not know that he spoke about the Father.

    So Jesus said to them: ‘When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that “I am He”, and I do nothing by myself, but as the Father has taught me I say these things.’ 

    ‘And the one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do things that are pleasing to him. ‘

    Many believed in him, as he was saying these things.

    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

  • John 8: 12-20 Light of the World

    Jesus spoke to them again: ‘I am the light of the world. The one who follows me will certainly not wander in the darkness, but will have the life-giving light continuously.’

    Then the Pharisees said to him: ‘You bear witness about yourself. Your witness is not true.’

    Jesus replied: ‘And even  if I bear witness about myself, my witness is true, because I know where I come from and where I go away to. You do not know where I come from or where I go away to. You judge according to the flesh, I do not pass judgment on anyone. Yet if I judge, my judgement is trustworthy, because I am not alone, but there’s me, and the Father, the one who sent me. 

    And in your Law it is written that the witness of two men is true. I am the witness about myself and the one who sent me, the Father, bears witness about me. 

    They said to him: ‘Where is your father?’

    Jesus answered: ‘You neither know me nor my father, If you knew me, then you would know my father as well. 

    (These words he spoke in the Temple treasury, while teaching in the Temple grounds. And nobody arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.)

    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)

  • John 7:45-52 Us and them

    Therefore the officers went back to the Chief Priests and the Pharisees, and they said to them: ‘Why did you not bring him?’ 

    The officers replied ‘ No man has ever spoken like him.’ 

    So the Pharisees answered ‘You have not been deceived too, have you?’ Has one of the authorities or any of the Pharisees believed in him?  But this crowd, which does not know the Law, is cursed.’

    Nicodemus, who came to him before and  who was one of them, said to them, ‘Our Law does not judge a man unless first it has heard from him, and knows what he has been doing, does it?’ 

    They responded :’ You are not from Galilee too, are you?  Search and you will see that that (the) prophet does not rise from Galilee.’ 

    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

  • John 7:40-44 Three way split

    Some of the crowd, hearing this, began to say ‘This man is really the Prophet.’ Others were saying ‘This man is the Christ.’ but still others said ‘No. The Christ does not come from Galilee, does he? Did not Scripture say that the Christ has David as an ancestor, and comes from the village of Bethlehem, where David was.’ So a split happened in the crowd because of him. 

    Some of them wanted  to arrest him, but nobody laid their hands on him.

    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.

  • John 7:37-39 Water, everywhere

    On the last day of the feast , the most important,  Jesus was standing and cried out:

     ‘If anyone is thirsty let them come to me
    and let whoever believes in me, drink.
    As the  Scripture says, rivers of living water will flow from his core. ‘

    (He said this about the Spirit, which he was about to give to those who believed in him. For the Spirit was not yet present, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.)

    God, give me grace to accept with serenity
    the things that cannot be changed,
    Courage to change the things
    which should be changed,
    and the Wisdom to distinguish
    the one from the other.

    Living one day at a time,
    Enjoying one moment at a time,
    Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
    Taking, as Jesus did,
    This sinful world as it is,
    Not as I would have it,
    Trusting that You will make all things right,
    If I surrender to Your will,
    So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
    And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

    Amen.

  • John 7:33-36 Safe – having been sent and going home

    The Pharisees heard of the crowd murmuring these things about him and the Chief Priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. 

    Then Jesus said ‘I am with you for only a short time and then I will go to the one who sent me. You will seek me and you will not find me, and where I am you cannot come. ‘

    So the Jewish leaders said to one another: ‘Where is this man about to go that we will not find him?  He is not about to go to where our people live among Greeks, and teach the Greeks, is he?’ What is this saying:  “You will seek me and you will not find me, and where I am you cannot come?”’

    Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
    Naught be all else to me, save that thou art –
    Thou my best thought, by day or by night;
    Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.