“Deepening our union with the Father and enjoying greater freedom of happiness and joy”

(Based on Acts 22:30-23:6-11 and Jn 17:20-26 – Thursday of the 7th Week in Easter)

A cute story of a little boy, who loved fruits.

This little boy fellow was once, tempted to pluck some cherries from a tree, which his father had strictly forbidden him to touch.

“You need not be afraid,” said his notorious companion, “for if your father should find out that you have taken them, he is too kind to hurt you.”

“Ah,” said the brave little fellow, “that is the very reason why I would not touch them;
For I know that my father would not hurt me. So I should not hurt him by my disobedience!”


The little boy knew the love of his Father towards him… and so he dared not hurt his Father.
>> He was not afraid of the punishment of the Father.
>> He was instead afraid of the hurt that would cause pain to the Father.


True love causes a holy and pious concern of not wanting to cause any offence to the one who is loved.
>> True Love casts away all fear!
>> True Love drives away every anxiety!

It is this True Love of the Father that was made known by Jesus to all of us.


The Gospel of the Day presents Jesus shedding greater light on His intimate relation with the Father and revealing deeper, the love of the Father for each one of us.

Jesus prays, “… so that they may be one, as we are one. I in them and You in Me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.” (Jn 17: 22b, 23)


The High Priestly Prayer of Jesus in the Seventeenth Chapter of St John, is another insight into the intimate relation that Jesus had with His Father.

>> All His life, He sought to do only the Father’s Will
>> All His life, He sought to reveal the love of the Father to the world.
This was driven by the fact that Jesus was in intimate union with the Father.

To His disciples, Jesus wishes to leave this same legacy – the legacy of loving the Father intimately.

Jesus wishes to tell us that we have a Father who is deeply interested and caring for us.
>> Jesus wishes to convince us that our lives are secure in the Providential care of the Father.


However, our lives sometimes fails to display this trust and confidence in the providential care of the Father
>> Some of us may have a wrong notion of God being interested only in finding my wrongdoings and punishing me for the same…
>> Some of us may have the wrong notion of God being unapproachable, unavailable and inaccessible because of His Holiness and Majesty!


But Jesus seeks to drive away all such false impressions.

He tells us that the Father…
… is surely the keeper of justice, and may take us through a time of trials and difficulties.
>> But those are not to be seen as cruel punishments, but loving acts for improvements towards a holier life!

He tells us that the Father…
…. is surely the Lord and Master of the Universe, and is totally aware of even the calamities or hardships that befall our lives
>> But in all those hard moments, the loving Father keeps us safely in the palm of His hand, not allowing us, His beloved children to get hurt or harmed!

When we are convinced of this deep love that the Father has towards us, we would be able to orient our lives in a way that is worthy of our call as witnesses of Christ.


Jesus by His unity with the Father, enjoyed perfect freedom.
>> He invites us to also deepen our union with the Father and enjoy greater freedom of happiness and joy.


God Bless! Live Jesus!

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Discovering the beauty of the Catholic Church through the Catechism
WHEN IS THE LITURGY CELEBRATED? LITURGICAL SEASONS – The Liturgy of the Hours
>> The mystery of Christ, his Incarnation and Passover, which we celebrate in the Eucharist especially at the Sunday assembly, permeates and transfigures the time of each day, through the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours, “the divine office.”
>> This celebration, faithful to the apostolic exhortations to “pray constantly,” is “so devised that the whole course of the day and night is made holy by the praise of God.”
>> In this “public prayer of the Church,” the faithful (clergy, religious, and lay people) exercise the royal priesthood of the baptized.
>> Celebrated in “the form approved” by the Church, the Liturgy of the Hours “is truly the voice of the Bride herself addressed to her Bridegroom. It is the very prayer which Christ himself together with his Body addresses to the Father.
>> The Liturgy of the Hours is intended to become the prayer of the whole People of God.
>> In it Christ himself “continues his priestly work through his Church.”
>> His members participate according to their own place in the Church and the circumstances of their lives: priests devoted to the pastoral ministry, because they are called to remain diligent in prayer and the service of the word; religious, by the charism of their consecrated lives; all the faithful as much as possible: “Pastors of souls should see to it that the principal hours, especially Vespers, are celebrated in common in church on Sundays and on the more solemn feasts.
>> The laity, too, are encouraged to recite the divine office, either with the priests, or among themselves, or even individually (CCC #1174-1175)
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