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

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.