Rogation Wednesday
Posted on May 13, 2026 by under
Scripture: St. John 17:1-19 (NKJV)
17:1 Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, 2 as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
6 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7 Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. 8 For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.
9 “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. 10 And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.”
Devotion
We call our Lord Jesus our “Intercessor.” Today St. John shares with us the prayer of our Lord Jesus for us, and the Apostles, on the night of His arrest. His prayer is that through His death and resurrection all men might believe on Him as the true Messiah. For when we have faith in Him, we are granted eternal life. Our faith in Him stems from what He earned for us on the cross. He won for us the forgiveness of all our sins. We cling in faith to the promise of redemption from our sins, that our Lord Jesus intercedes on our behalf to the heavenly Father.
He has ascended to the right hand of the heavenly Father, and pleads on our behalf, even as He does here in this High Priestly prayer recorded in our reading. He prays that none of us may fall away from His loving protection. If the Lord Jesus is interceding on our behalf, if He is praying for us, as we pray daily to Him by the work of the Holy Ghost, through the means of grace our faith in Him is strengthened. No power of hell, or this evil world, or our sinful flesh, can tear us away from our Lord’s loving intercession for us to the heavenly Father. Let us pray with all confidence in our Lord Jesus, knowing that He pleads for us to the Father.
Collect: Grant, we beseech Thee, O Almighty God, that we, who in our affliction put our trust in Thy mercy, may ever be defended by Thy protection against all adversity; through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Collect for Rogate Sunday
O God, from Whom all good things do come: Grant to us Thy humble servants, that by Thy holy inspiration we may think those things that be right and by Thy merciful guiding may perform the same; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
