Bear witness

In today’s first reading (Acts 22:30; 23:6-11), the Lord tells Saint Paul:

Take courage.

For just as you have borne witness to my cause
in Jerusalem,
so you must also bear witness
in Rome.

By the grace of God, Saint Paul gave witness to Christ in the heart of the Jewish world and then in the heart of the entire Western world.

What he did, we must also do by the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who - in today’s Gospel (John 17:20-26) – prays for us and for those to whom we give witness.

I pray not only for these,
but also for those
who will believe in me through their word,
so that they may all be one,
as you, Father, are in me
and I in you,
that they also may be in us,
that the world may believe
that you sent me.

And I have given them
the glory you gave me,
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.

Father,
they are your gift to me.

I wish that where I am
they also may be with me,
that they may see
my glory that you gave me,
because you loved me
before the foundation of the world.

Righteous Father,
the world also does not know you,
but I know you,
and they know that you sent me.

I made known to them your name
and I will make it known,
that the love with which you loved me
may be in them
and I in them.