Hello, this is Father Paul, and I'm glad we're
taking this journey together to read the Bible
in a year. Today's reading is from the Gospel
of John, chapters 14 through 16. Chapter 14 Let
not your heart be troubled. You believe in God,
believe also in me. In my Father's house are
many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and
if I go, and prepare a place for you, I will
come again and receive you to myself, that where
I am, there you may be also. And where I go you
know, and the way you know. Thomas said to him,
Lord, we do not know where you are going, and
how can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I
am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes
to the Father except through me. If you had known
me, you would have known my Father also. And
from now on, you know him and have seen him.
Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father,
and it is sufficient for us. Jesus said to him,
Have I been with you so long, and yet you have
not known me, Philip? He who has seen me has
seen the Father. So how can you say, Show us
the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the
Father and the Father in me? The words that I
speak to you I do not speak on my own authority,
but the Father who dwells in me does the works.
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father
in me, or else believe me for the sake of the
works themselves. Most assuredly I say to you,
he who believes in me, the works that I do, he
will do also, and greater works than these he
will do, because I go to my Father. And whatever
you ask in my name, that I will do, that the
Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask
anything in my name, I will do it. If you love
me, Keep my commandments, and I will pray the
Father, and he will give you another helper,
that he may abide with you forever. The Spirit
of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because
it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know
him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans. I will come to
you. A little while longer, and the world will
see me no more. But you will see me. Because
I live, you will live also. At that day you will
know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and
I in you. He who has my commandments and keeps
them, it is he who loves me. And he who loves
me will be loved by my Father, and I will love
him and manifest myself to him. Judas, not Iscariot,
said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest
yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus answered
and said to him, If anyone loves me, he will
keep my word, and my Father will love him, and
we will come to him and make our home with him.
He who does not love me does not keep my words,
and the word which you hear is not mine, but
the Father's who sent me. These things I have
spoken to you while being present with you, but
the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father
will send in my name, he will teach you all things
and bring to your remembrance all things that
I said to you. Peace I leave with you, my peace
I gift you. Not as the world gives do I gift
you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither
let it be afraid. You have heard me say to you,
I am going away and coming back to you. If you
loved me, you would rejoice because I said, I
am going to the Father, for my Father is greater
than I. And now I have told you before it comes,
that when it does come to pass, you may believe.
I will no longer talk much with you. for the
ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing
in me, but that the world may know that I love
the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment,
so I do. Arise, let us go from here. Chapter
15 I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.
Every branch in me that does not bear fruit,
he takes away. And every branch that bears fruit
he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are
already clean because of the word which I have
spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless
it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless
you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches.
He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much
fruit. For without me you can do nothing. If
anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as
a branch and is withered, and they gather them
and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
If you abide in me and my words abide in you,
you will ask what you desire, and it shall be
done for you. By this my Father is glorified,
that you bear much fruit, so you will be my disciples.
As the Father loved me, I also have loved you.
Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments,
you will abide in my love, just as I have kept
my father's commandments and abide in his love.
These things I have spoken to you, that my joy
may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
This is my commandment, that you love one another
as I have loved you. Greater love has no one
than this, than to lay down one's life for his
friends. You are my friends if you do whatever
I command you. No longer do I call you servants.
For a servant does not know what his master is
doing, but I have called you friends. For all
things that I heard from my father I have made
known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose
you and appointed you that you should go and
bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain,
that whatever you ask the father in my name he
may give you. These things I command you that
you love one another. If the world hates you,
you know that it hated me before it hated you.
If you were of the world, the world would love
its own. Yet because you are not of the world,
but I chose you out of the world, therefore the
world hates you. Remember the word that I said
to you, a servant is not greater than his master.
If they persecuted me, they will also persecute
you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours
also. But all these things they will do to you
for my name's sake, because they do not know
him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken
to them, they would have no sin. But now they
have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me
hates my father also. If I had not done among
them the works which no one else did, they would
have no sin. But now they have seen and also
hated both me and my father. But this happened
that the word might be fulfilled which is written
in their law. They hated me without a cause.
but when the helper comes whom i shall send to
you from the father the spirit of truth who proceeds
from the father he will testify of me and you
also will bear witness because you have been
with me from the beginning chapter sixteen these
things i have spoken to you that you should not
be made to stumble They will put you out of the
synagogues. Yes, the time is coming that whoever
kills you will think that he offers God service.
And these things they will do to you because
they have not known the Father nor me. But these
things I have told you that when the time comes,
you may remember that I told you of them. And
these things I did not say to you at the beginning
because I was with you. But now I go away to
him who sent me, and none of you asks me. Where
are you going? But because I have said these
things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to
your advantage that I go away. For if I do not
go away, the Helper will not come to you. But
if I depart, I will send him to you. And when
he has come, he will convict the world of sin,
and of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin,
because they do not believe in me. Of righteousness,
because I go to my Father, and you see me no
more. of judgment, because the ruler of this
world is judged. I still have many things to
say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However,
when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will
guide you into all truth, for He will not speak
on His own authority, but whatever He hears,
He will speak, and He will tell you things to
come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of
what is Mine and declare it to you. All things
that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said
that he will take of mine and declare it to you,
a little while and you will not see me, and again
a little while and you will see me, because I
go to the Father. Then some of his disciples
said among themselves, What is this that he says
to us, a little while and you will not see me,
and again a little while and you will see me,
and because I go to the Father? They said therefore,
What is this that he says, a little while? We
do not know what he is saying. Now Jesus knew
that they desired to ask him, and he said to
them, Are you inquiring among yourselves about
what I said a little while, and you will not
see me, and again a little while, and you will
see me? Most assuredly I say to you that you
will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice,
and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will
be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor,
has sorrow because her hour has come. But as
soon as she has given birth to the child, she
no longer remembers the anguish for joy that
a human being has been born into the world. Therefore
you now have sorrow, but I will see you again,
and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no
one will take from you. And in that day you will
ask me nothing. Most assuredly I say to you,
whatever you ask the Father, in my name he will
give you. Until now you have asked nothing in
my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your
joy may be full. These things I have spoken to
you in figurative language, but the time is coming
when I will no longer speak to you in figurative
language, but I will tell you plainly about the
Father. In that day you will ask in my name,
and I do not say to you that I shall pray the
Father for you. For the Father himself loves
you, because you have loved me, and have believed
that I came forth from God. I came forth from
the Father and have come into the world. Again,
I leave the world and go to the Father. His disciples
said to him, See, now you are speaking plainly
and using no figure of speech. Now we are sure
that you know all things and have no need that
anyone should question you. By this we believe
that you came forth from God. Jesus answered,
Do you now believe? Indeed the hour is coming.
Yes has now come. that you will be scattered
each to his own, and will leave me alone. And
yet I am not alone, because the Father is with
me. These things I have spoken to you, that in
me you may have peace. In the world you will
have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world. I hope you enjoyed today's
reading as much as I did, and I look forward
to seeing you again tomorrow to continue on our
journey. God bless you and have a great day.