Jesus prays to his Father, his Abba, at the end of the Last Supper just before setting out with his disciples across the Kidron Valley to Gethsemani to face his arrest and Passion. Calling upon his loving relationship with His Father, he fervently prays to bring all humanity into that bond.  With total love he faces total rejection by us whom he has loved.  Nonetheless, his trifold prayer for us resonates through our salvation history: May we be believers as one, hearing him in the voices of other believers across time, an everlasting communion of saints.

May we be perfected in our unity, all for One, witnessing to the world that Jesus has been sent for us all.  And may we be with God, present one day with Jesus, the One for all, in heaven as he has been present so constantly with us here as we prepare for eternity.      

—Jim O’Donnell is a long-serving deacon at Gesu Church, University Heights, OH. He is also a University Hospitals physician specializing and leading a research team in nuclear medicine.