I pray for you   

June 3, 2025 – Tuesday of the 7^th Week of Easter

Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/060325.cfm)

“Please pray for me. Please include my loved one in your prayers.” Most likely, we often hear such request from our friends or people we know. Praying for others is also our life as Christians. It is such a comfort that we are being remembered in the thoughts and prayers of others.

This is true in occasions when we celebrate special moments of our life. When we are sick, leave home for studies or work, take challenging endeavors (such as taking board exams), we ask for prayers. When we too struggle with our problems and concerns, or starting a new chapter of our life, we ask the people we know to pray for us. We ask for the grace of strength and wisdom, courage and faith.

In today’s Gospel, we have been reminded of the intimacy Jesus shared with his Father. This is shown on how Jesus prayed to the Father in heaven. Jesus expressed his confidence and at the same time the unity he has with the Father. What Jesus has is also of the Father’s. The glory of Jesus is also the glory of the Father. The suffering and pain of Jesus at his passion and even death is also shared by the Father.

All of these have been revealed to Jesus’ friends who were also so dear to the Father. Jesus treasures this friendship. “I pray for them,” were the words of Jesus as his assurance to his friends of his abiding presence.

As a friend, Jesus manifests his concern by expressing his desire to pray for them. Jesus is about to leave physically in the world. Yet, it does not mean that Jesus will abandon this friends.

Jesus prays for his friends. Jesus prays for us. This means that Jesus remembers us, his friends in his thoughts. Being in the thought of Jesus also means that Jesus makes his person ever present in the life of his friends. It is a promise of faithfulness and of constant presence of God.

Today, Jesus reminds us too, that he prays for us and with us. We can say this confidently, “Jesus prays with me because he remembers me and he is with me.”

Being remembered by Jesus in his prayers, let us make an effort too, to pray for others today. Pray for your friends. Pray for your family members. Pray for those who really need our prayers.

Prayer makes us more conscious of others as we become one with them in their hopes, joys and suffering. In prayer, we also become more present with God as we grow in our confidence and faith in Him who has called us and loved us. Hinaut pa.