Jesus shows compassion in praying for his disciples. What does compassion mean to you?

The readings this Sunday gather the church in preparation for the celebration of Pentecost. Everyone’s there in the upper room: apostles, women and men, and probably quite a few others, too, united in prayer.

Is there a proper season for prayer? The fourth-century Eastern Church Father Saint Basil the Great said there is.

A brother who belonged to the Missionaries of Charity, the community founded by Mother Theresa, once wrote about finding meaning in suffering: "Pope John XXIII, speaking on suffering, stressed the need to find a purpose in it."

I watched Mystery and glory revealed each time my mother knelt down to pray. Mom didn't look particularly different--no far-away gaze, ethereal glow, or contorted features that you might associate with someone tapping into eternal life.

Listening to an opposing team's coach giving the pep talk against our school's team, I was appalled by how completely negative all the comments were. Our team, he sneered, looking at us with disgust, had no heart. We were quitters. We would easily back down. We were, in short, "a bunch of losers."

What's our goal in life? Ease and comfort? Jesus invites us to a higher goal-faithfulness.

Jesus was one with God. In prayer we ask for greater unity with Christ.

. . . . Together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus. It's not surprising that Luke, who more than the other gospel writers mentions the women around Jesus, should note the presence of Mary and other women gathered with the apostles in the upper room.

Christ, who promised to make his disciples one in God with him, who promised that he would be in God and God in us, has realized this in a mysterious way: He has accomplished this great work, this stupendous privilege for us. --John Henry Newman (1801-1890)