The Commission as Friends. The language of friendship is immediately contextualized by language of election in v.16: It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.” As Fr. Raymond Brown points out [683], this language of election does not speak of the election of the Twelve because there is no indication anywhere in the Farewell Discourse of the number and composition of the circle that is present with Jesus on this last evening. Rather, Jesus reminds the disciples (including the readers) that their place with him is the result of his initiative, not theirs; relationship with Jesus is ultimately a result of God’s grace. Continue reading
Remain in my love: commissioned
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I grew up in the College Park section of Orlando. It has been around for a while. The first resident, John Ericsson, built his home in 1880. In the 1920s there was a huge upswing in new homes and many of the neighborhoods east of Edgewater Drive were constructed. The area west of Edgewater was built in the late 1940’s and 1950’s. College Park was the home to people as diverse as astronaut John Young and beat-generation writer Jack Kerouac. In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s when I was growing up there, everybody knew folks; you certainly knew everyone on your street and one or two streets in each direction. You could mostly walk up and down the street in the early evening and meet and greet most folks. They were on the porch when the afternoon humidity had lifted and you could catch a bit of coolness from the evening breeze. Then some darn fool went and made air conditioning popular. 
Once upon a time, in a parish far, far away it was time for the annual parish fundraising campaign. The pastor arranged to have a man give a witness talk about the benefits of giving. The man was well-known in the parish and in the community at large. He had been very successful in business and was very wealthy. 
friarmusings 