The Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest | Thursday 1 June 2023

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Today is Thursday the 1st of June, the feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest.

As you arrive at prayer today, become aware of God's loving gaze upon you. Juliano Ravanello sings 'Adore Te Devote':

Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore,

Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more,

See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart

Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art.

Are you able to become lost in wonder at God today?

Adoro te devote, latens Deitas

Quæ sub his figuris vere latitas

Tibi se cor meum totum subjicit

Quia te contemplans totum deficit

Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur

Sed auditu solo tuto creditur

Credo quidquid dixit Dei Fílius

Nil hoc verbo veritatis verius

In cruce latebat sola Deitas

At hic latet simul et humanitas

Ambo tamen credens atque confitens

Peto quod petivit latro pœnitens

Plagas, sicut Thomas, non intueor

Deum tamen meum te confiteor

Fac me tibi semper magis credere

In te spem habere, te diligere

O memoriale mortis Domini!

Panis vivus, vitam præstans homini!

Præsta meæ menti de te vivere

Et te illi semper dulce sapere

Pie pellicane, Jesu Domine

Me immundum munda tuo sanguine

Cujus una stilla salvum faceret

Totum mundum quit ab omni scelere

Jesu, quem velatum nunc aspicio

Oro fiat illud, quod tam sitio

Ut, te revelata cernens facie

Visu sim beatus tuæ gloriæ. Amen

Today’s reading is from the letter to the Hebrews.

Hebr 10:4-10

For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,

‘Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,

but a body you have prepared for me;

in burnt-offerings and sin-offerings

you have taken no pleasure.

Then I said, “See, God, I have come to do your will, O God”

(in the scroll of the book it is written of me).’

When he said above, ‘You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt-offerings and sin-offerings’ (these are offered according to the law), then he added, ‘See, I have come to do your will.’ He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. And it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Today the church celebrates Jesus as “eternal high priest”. What images of Jesus come to mind as you ponder this?

“See, God, I have come to do your will”. Take a moment to remember the ways in which Jesus carried out the will of God; the servant-heartedness of our high priest…

As we listen to the reading again, notice the presence of “sacrifice” in the passage…

‘And it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.’ As this time of prayer comes to a close, spend some time reflecting on the sacrifice of Jesus and the ways in which you are being sanctified by Jesus, our eternal high priest.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.