Friends, make this prayer your own!

Paraphrase and prayer based on John 17:11-19

Jesus is no longer in the world, but I am in the world and Jesus has gone to his Father. Jesus prays for Father to keep me in God’s name, the name of Jesus, that all of me may be one, just as Jesus and his Father are one. 

While Jesus was in the world, he kept me in God’s name, he guarded me and didn’t lose any part of me except the part that was death-bound. 

Before Jesus went to be with you, he speaks some words that will fill me with his joy. He gives me your word and says the world will hate me because I am not of the world just as it hated you for the same reason.

He leaves me in the world and asks his Father to protect me from the evil one. 

Jesus repeats that I am not of the world, just as he was not of the world. 

He asks you to sanctify me in truth, God’s word. As Jesus was sent into the world, he sends me into the world. And because of me, he consecrated himself so I also may be consecrated with truth.

Thank you, Jesus for praying for your followers to be one, to be protected from the evil one, to be sanctified and then to be sent out.

Begin with me. Unite the whole of me, lose only the part of me that is tied to death and bound by sin. Drain me like pasta in a colander, keep the good, let the bad run off. Protect me from the wiles of the enemy as I go about my day. Fill me with the joy of your truth as a guard and as a teacher. Send me out to bring your love to the world you so love and call home. Amen.