Praying for Men And The World

Ego pro eis rogo, non pro mundo rogo, sed pro his, quos dedisti mihi. Haec enim dixit inter alia, dum oraret pro eis, quos dedit ei Pater. Mundum vult modo intelligi, qui vivunt secundum concupiscentiam mundi, et non sunt in ea sorte gratiae ut ab ulli eligantur ex mundo. Non itaque pro mundo, sed pro eis quos Pater dedit, rogare se dicit: per hoc enim quod eos illi Pater jam dedit, factum est ut non pertineant ad eum mundum, pro quo non rogat. Alcuinus, Commentariorum in Joannem, Lib VII, XXXIX Source: Migne PL 100.963b-c

For them I pray, not for the world, but for these whom you have given to me. 1 These things He says 2 among others things while He prays for them whom the Father has given to him. The world He wishes to be understood in this way: they who live according to the desire of the world, in which there is not that grace that any of them are chosen from the world. Thus not for the world, but for those whom the Father has given to Him, He says He prays; for by this, that the Father had already given them to Him, it was that they not belong to that world, for which He does not pray. Alcuin of York, Commentary On The Gospel of Saint John, Book 7, Chapter 39 1  Jn 17.9 2 From here quotes Augustine's 124th Tractate on The Gospel of St John