Friends, welcome to Word on Fire, Catholic Ministries. Word on Fire is an

apostolate dedicated to the mission of evangelization, using media both old and

new to share the faith on every continent and to facilitate an encounter with

Christ and His Church. The efforts of Word on Fire engage the culture and bring

the transformative power of God's Word where it is most needed. Today we invite

you to join Bishop Robert Barron as he preaches the gospel and shares the

warmth and light of Christ with each one of us.

Peace be with you. Friends, as the Easter season draws to a close, we hear from

one of the most magnificent passages in the gospel of John, namely the high

priestly prayer of Jesus. It's a long discourse he utters the night of the last

supper, so the night before he dies. And of course in John's gospel we don't

have an account of the institution of the Eucharist which you find in the

synoptics. You find the account of the washing of the feet and then this long

discourse which is by far the longest speech given by Jesus anywhere in the

New Testament. And I think it just repays constant study and reading because in

some ways the seeds of all of Christian spirituality are there. You can find the

whole Christian thing in this high priestly discourse. So what I want to do is in

this homelace, this necessarily briefly, but look at some of these major

motifs. Here are the first words of the Lord that we over here. It's like we're

given a privileged access. It's as though we're in the room with Jesus and the

apostles. So we hear him say, holy Father, keep them in your name that you've

given me so that they may be one just as we are one. Of course it's an

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