Homily for Wednesday of the 7th Week of Easter

Jesus has guided His disciples and protected them. Now His prayer on their behalf continues His loving care. His intercessory prayer is an extension of the many ways He had served them since they first began to follow Him. In a similar way, our prayer for others is an extension of our care for them; it is another form of Christian service.

By interceding for His disciples, Jesus teaches us the value of all intercessory prayer. Praying for others has been at the heart of the Church’s prayer life since the time of Jesus. Paul often mentions prayers for his churches, and he called on his people to pray for him. Both Jesus and Paul, of course, were heirs to a Jewish tradition that greatly valued this form of prayer. The prayer of intercession is one of the ways we express our communion with others in Christ.+