Sunday, May 17, 2026
Seventh Sunday of Easter
John 17:1-11
Listen to the whole reading — MP3
First reading
Acts 1:12-14
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. When they had come in, they went up into the upper room, where they were staying; that is Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord continued steadfastly in prayer and supplication, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
Responsorial psalm
Psalms 27:1,4,7-8
The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? One thing I have asked of the Lord, that I will seek after: that I may dwell in the Lord’s house all the days of my life, to see the Lord’s beauty, and to inquire in his temple. Hear, the Lord, when I cry with my voice. Have mercy also on me, and answer me. When you said, “Seek my face,” my heart said to you, “I will seek your face, the Lord.”
Gospel
John 17:1-11
Jesus said these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you; even as you gave him authority over all flesh, so he will give eternal life to all whom you have given him. This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ. I glorified you on the earth. I have accomplished the work which you have given me to do. Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed. I revealed your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me. They have kept your word. Now they have known that all things whatever you have given me are from you, for the words which you have given me I have given to them, and they received them, and knew for sure that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I don’t pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are.
Lectio
There is a particular quality to the days between Ascension and Pentecost — a waiting that is neither anxious nor idle. The disciples have watched the Lord disappear into the cloud, and now they return to that upper room, the same room where so much has already happened, and they simply stay. They do not scatter. They do not strategize. They gather, with the women and with Mary, and they pray "with one accord." It is a holy in-between, a threshold where the only thing to do is to remain together and lift the heart upward.
And while they wait below, listen to what is happening above. In John's Gospel, Jesus is praying for them by name, even before they know to ask. "I pray for them," he says, "for they are yours." Before the disciples ever found their way to that room, they were already held in the Son's words to the Father. This is the great consolation hidden in these readings: our waiting is never solitary. When the Psalmist cries, "Seek my face," and answers, "Your face, O Lord, do I seek," he is only echoing a longing that has already been placed in him from above. We seek because we have first been sought.
Notice, too, that Jesus measures the meaning of his life not by how much he accomplished alone, but by the union he leaves behind — "that they may be one, even as we are." The fruit of his work is a communion, a people gathered in prayer. So much of our restlessness comes from believing we must produce something to be worthy. But the upper room teaches a slower truth: sometimes faithfulness looks like staying put, staying together, and keeping the heart turned toward the One who is already praying for us.
Where in your life right now are you living in an uncomfortable "in-between" — and are you trying to fill that waiting with activity rather than letting it become, like the upper room, a place of shared prayer?
If you truly believed that Jesus is praying for you by name at this very moment, the way he prayed for his disciples, what fear that you named this week would begin to loosen its grip?
Saint of the day
St. Joachina de Vedruna de Mas, Foundress (1783-1854)
Ora reads this aloud, every morning, free. Ora