Keep them in Thy name.-Name means will, service, keeping or employment. Virtue and might, also.

One.-Our Lord prayed for this especially as the great mark of His Church. Most of the commentators refer this portion of His prayer to the future successors of the Twelve as well as to themselves.

51 kept them. It was rather a difficult matter. Now He knows their danger and He puts forth the anxiety of a tender father for his children that they may see how much He loves them.

"None of them hath perished except.-He had all who were called and they remained faithful. This prayer was not heard then, but was heard and fulfilled in Pentecost.

"Son of perdition.-This is a Hebraism for one deserving of perdition. Some interpreters think that Our Lord says Judas was given to Him only conditionally, as a woful example. Ipsi viderint.

Perseverance in vocation:

Ist. Should be prayed for daily.

2nd. Others should be asked

to pray for the same.

3rd. For it is a gift from heaven.

Lost vocations:

Ist. Come from negligence. 2nd. From want of energy.

3rd. By the sheer curse of God for sins committed.

13. "Nunc autem ad te venio : et hæc loquor in mundo, ut habeant gaudium meum impletum in semetipsis.

14. "Ego dedi eis sermonem tuum; et mundus eos odio habuit, quia non sunt de mundo, sicut et ego non sum de mundo.

15. Non rogo ut tollas eos de mundo, sed ut serves eos à malo.

16. "De mundo non sunt, sicut et ego non sum de mundo.

13. And now 'I come to thee; and these things, I speak in the world, that they may have my joy filled in themselves.

14. I have given them 'thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, as I also am not of the world.

15. I do not ask that thou take them away out of the world, but that thou 'preserve them from evil.

16. They are not of the world. as I also am not of the world.

The great feature in the life of the Apostles-the life they have to lead, when Our Lord is gone-is their being in the world and not of the world. They are like the gulf stream in the ocean. They have to go through the world, eat drink and sleep like other men, but they must not be of the world.

They must be without father or mother, or brother or sister, or wife or children, or home or dwelling house. They are not to make or possess money or lands. Their eyes are to be always fixed upon a spiritual end, and their conversation is to be in heaven. For this detachment and the object of it, great powers are given to them which they are to exercise at their pleasure.

Now the world-by which is meant unbelievers and persons attached to worldly things and worldly ways-will resent all this. The simplicity and poverty of the Apostles are sure to make them many enemies among a people who spend their lives in gathering riches and using them for pleasure.

The prayer uttered here is for their preservation in their heroic resolve to imitate their master as well as to escape from the surrounding contamination.

1I come to Thee.-The term of my sojourn is at an end, and therefore am I so much concerned about my few faithful companions.

2In the world.-Whilst I am in it, or for the benefit of those who are inclined to be worldly.

3My joy. Our Lord's joy consists in the union with His Father, and the union of charity and peace which He prays may exist, is the only real source of happiness amongst a community.

4Thy word. The message wherewith I was charged and did charge myself, as thou knowest, when I came among them.

"Not of the world.-The training which Our Lord gave them was perfect in its kind. He began by calling upon them to leave all things, and continued by showing them the evil of turning back to what had been left.

"Out of the world.—A speedy death in innocence is a pleasant thing; but a staunch follower of a crucified leader must earn his crown in some other way.

"Preserve them from evil-The evils which beset the path of a minister of God are-ambition, avarice or voluptuousness.

8As I am not. I have brought them up in the manner which I judged best for myself as well as for them.

Separation from the world is not enough. Diogenes in his tub, or Simon on his bleak shore are no prototypes of Christianity. Even the life of the Baptist is not intended for apostles.

Two great works are laid out for apostles and priests, the sanctification of themselves and the sanctification of others. Their calling in the world is to sanctify those who oppose them and persecute them, and to sanctify themselves by so doing. One can scarcely be accomplished without the other. If the people may be sanctified without the ministrations of apostles, it is certain that no priest who has a conscience can feel that he has done enough for his sanctification when he has said his prayers and gone through a routine of spiritual duties.

To be holy is not enough. One must grow in holiness. The Apostles were all holy, for Our Lord Himself said so; both before and after the Last Supper. They must not be content with that, and by making others holy-as He Himself did them and othersthey would increase their merit before God, men, and angels.

1In truth. The truth here is variously interpreted. The literal meaning is Thy word, or true doctrine. In reality, as opposed to figuratively, is adopted by a few.

Thy word. That is to say, Thy teaching and what I have to publish as such, and bequeath to the Church as a deposit of faith.

3 Sent Me.-The Father gave Our Lord all power for sanctifying the world. All jurisdiction was His.

Have sent.—This may be again either the past tense or the prophetic future. It does not appear that He conferred full powers upon them until shortly before His ascension into heaven. Although they were holy now they would not long remain so; but this would scarcely be any obstacle to further powers.

Sanctify Myself.-That means that Our Lord practised all those things which go to make up a holy life. He prayed, He taught, He kept every law made and carried out every intention formed according to the Divine Will.

Sanctified in truth. They are to have real and not merely external sanctity. This is well known to be a powerful lever. A holy man can do more than the learned man amongst the faithful.

The prayer now embraces a wider subject. Our Lord prays not only for those who believed in Him at that time but for all those who were to believe in Him to the end of time.

He looked into the future and saw the struggles and trials of poor Christians who would be tempted and sorely exercised on account of their faith. They were present to His mind then; and it is well, in our moments of dismay, to recollect that we were prayed for by Him then and that we are present to Him even now. He is in the boat asleep and wants to be awakened.

The prayer was for unity. Unity of faith is the mark of the Catholic Church and of it alone. The world can see in that Church and in it alone, that Jesus was sent and sent His Disciples with a divine commission. What other teacher was ever able to unite so many different tribes, nations, and tongues in one whole body believing the same thing and hoping for the same reward?

As unity of Faith is barren without unity of Charity, Our Lord prays for this. "God is charity and he that abideth in charity abideth in God, and God in him."-I. John iv. 16, as the Beloved Disciple remarks. This charity makes us live in God and in one another, by the same life of grace which animates us. Unity also of subordination and obedience is necessary for faith and given freely only from charity.

1Them only. The Apostles and the Seventy-two disciples according to some, were alone prayed for up to this.

Who through their word.-Those who believe according to the doctrines which the Apostles handed down and not according to what they pick up themselves from reading books.

3Thou Father in Me.-This is the Charity He wishes them to have. Let it be as close and as holy as the eternal model of Love.

4One in us.-Through the love of us.

The world. These are the lookers-on outside the Church, and the black sheep in its fold.

Hast sent me.-To believe in His mission is the first step towards availing ourselves of its benefits.