Tag: JohnG

  • John 16:12-15 The Spirit

    Yet I have many things to say to you,  but you cannot bear them now. 

    When  he comes, the Spirit of Truth, he will guide you in all truth.  For he will not speak to you on his own account but he will speak whatever he will hear and will tell you the things that are coming. 

    He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and announce it to you. 

    Every thing that the Father has is mine. Because of this I said that he takes from what is mine and announces it to you.

    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.

  • John 16:8-11 Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

    And when he comes he will ’shame’ the world about sin, about right-ness and about judgement. [Why?]

    First, about sin – because they do not believe in me.

    Then about right-ness – because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer. 

    Finally about judgement – because the ruler of this age has been judged. 

    Lord, you have given me so much,
    I ask for one more thing –
    a grateful heart.

    George Herbert€

  • John 16:1-7 Exclusion

    I have said these things to you so that you may not be led into turning away.

    They will shut you out of the synagogues. 
    But the hour is coming – when whoever kills you will consider it an act of devotion to offer to God.
    And they will do these things because they have come to  know neither the Father nor me.

    But I said these things to you so that when their hour comes you will remember them and that I told you. 

    I did not tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you.
    Now I go to the one who sent me, and yet none of you is asking me ‘Where are you going?’ 

    Instead because I said these things to you, grief has filled your hearts. 

    But I tell you the truth – it is better for you 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.’

    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€

  • John 15:22-27 – Without excuse

    But if I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin.
    Now they do not have an excuse with regard to their sin.
    The one who hates me hates my Father too.

    If I had not done the works which I did amongst them, which no-one else did, they would not have sin.
    Now they have seen [my works] and they have hated me and my Father.

    But this happened in order that the word written in their law might be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without cause.’ 

    When the ‘advocate’ comes –
    whom I will send  to you from the Father
    the Spirit of truth,
    who comes from the Father,
    – he will bear witness about me.

    And you, bear witness! -because you have been with me from the beginning.

    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

  • John 15:18- 21 – Hatreds

    If the world hates you, know that it hated me before you.  If you were from the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you are not from the world, – I chose you out from the world – because of this the world hates you all. 

    Remember the word which I said to you: ‘A slave is not greater than their master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too. If [on the other hand]  they keep my word, they will keep yours also. 

    But they will do all these things  to you because of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me.

    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 15:11-17 – Greater love

    I have said these things to you so that my joy may be yours,
    and your joy will be made full. 

    This is my command that you love one another, as I have loved you.  

    No one has greater love than this, that someone lays down his life for their friends

    You are my friends if you do what I command you. 

    I call you slaves no longer, because the slave does not understand what their master is doing. 

    I have called you friends, because everything which I have heard from the Father I have made known to you. 

    You have not chosen me but I have chosen you, and I have appointed you
    that you should go and bear fruit
    and that your fruit will ‘stay’,
    so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.

    These things I command you: to love one another. 

    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 15:9-10 – Love me do

    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)

  • John 15:4-6 Consequences

    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

  • John 14:27- 31 Peace

    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

  • John 14:15 -21 – Keep my Commands

    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