Summer is a time that has more daylight, more activities and it’s a time to spend with others...today’s episode is devoted to, “The One with Friends,” and the Gospel of John, Chapter 15.  Let’s pray…

Lord, help us be more like Jesus today.  Almighty and heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of life.  Thank you for the friendships in our lives.  Your plan, to create us at this time in history, to bond us with one another in friendship is truly so awesome.  Lord, we ask that you please continue to bless the listeners of this podcasts, their families and their friends.  Please continue to give strength to those who are not well and to their caregivers.  May this be a day when we reach out to our friends and let them know how grateful we are...and above all, Lord, how grateful we are for you.  We love you.  Amen.

Who are your closest friends? Who comes to mind right away?  Maybe it’s a life-long friend? Maybe it’s a friendship formed from a common situation...or a support group...or from Church.  I am amazingly blessed for amazing friends.  I was raised in a neighborhood where we all did things together.  That was at a time when we walked or rode our bikes to school together, we looked out for each other, other parents looked out for us and were allowed to discipline us if needed. It was a time when if we weren't outside playing with friends, it was a punishment to be inside the house, and everyone knew.  Kind of like how it used to be with the Eucharist, if you weren’t in full grace for communion, you would sit in the pew and not go up to receive while people walked by to get a taste of Heaven.  The friends, we would play until we knew it was time for dinner...then  we would head home and have an actual sit-down dinner with family, and then we would go outside to play again until almost dark but knowing that we had to be home - it was non-negotiable - by sunset.  As life happens and people go their certain ways, cherish careers, fall in love with families, have hobbies… friendships naturally take a back-seat but not too far from riding shotgun.  Now that many of my friends are entering our 6th decades...we still find ways to be in touch, to be supportive...in fact, my baseball buddies of 40+ years still text one another almost daily...sometimes to create a laugh...sometimes to offer support...technology has allowed each of us to be in different states...yet just a message away.  A friend...someone who is loyal, trusting, caring, loving, fun, funny, dependable, honest, sincere, real, faithful, unconditional…  

John Chapter 15:

What a friend we have in Jesus.  As it says in the Gospel, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  Our world is craving more Jesus...more friends.  It’s a world of agony and anger, hate and hypocrisy, a world void of love.  It doesn’t have to be that way.  Love never fails...ever.

Today, thank God for your friends.  If a friend of  yours is on your mind right now...please share this podcast with them.  Reach out to some who you haven’t reached out to in awhile…  You know how everyone always says at a funeral, or a reunion or a wedding,  “Why does it take an occurrence like this to see each other?” Don’t wait.  Reach out today.  Love never fails.  And if your friends don’t respond right away...that’s okay, too.  You did what you can control.  If your gut is telling you right now to reach out to someone...do it.  Don’t wither, but do it... be full of joy.  I’m thankful for you.  I’m thankful for my friends.

Friends.  The Golden Rule.  Love.  It never fails…