Union With God

The good news is that

God wants closer union with us here and now

and for all eternity!

The Creator of the whole universe does not need us.

He could have been perfectly content

for all eternity

in the unity of the Holy Trinity.

God is Love! We were created by Love because He wants to share all that is good with us. We did nothing to deserve His generosity. God knew before He willed us into existence all of the ways in which He would be disappointed in us, scorned by us, rejected by us. From all eternity He knew that the sacrifice of His Son on the Cross would be unrecognized or unappreciated by many. Even so, He created the universe and all that's in it for an undeserving and often ungrateful humanity--BECAUSE HE LOVES US!

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The Word, the Son of God, became flesh and dwelt among us to save us from our sins and open heaven's gates to us. The true extent of His physical, mental, and spiritual sufferings are barely known to mankind, and what is known is seldom meditated upon. We live in a world where pleasure and indulgence have become false gods for many and where the value of the cross, and what it signifies, holds little appeal for most of God's children.

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Before Jesus suffered and died for us, He left His first priests, the apostles, with the mandate to stand in His place and repeat the words that change bread and wine into His Body and Blood. He arranged it so that we Catholics and the world would not be without His Real Presence, His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the Eucharist. We need our Catholic priests in order to have Jesus in the Eucharist.

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Jesus is both God and man. If the purpose of our lives is intimate union with God, the best place to start is with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and then spending time with Jesus outside of Mass in Eucharistic adoration. This applies even to priests as Pope Benedict XVI has said, "...the secret of their sanctification lies precisely in the Eucharist...the priest must be first and foremost an adorer who contemplates the Eucharist."

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Please, Lord, sanctify Your priests, and send us many more holy priests!

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Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest, Mother of all priests, and our Mother, help us respond generously to the Holy Spirit's request, through the voice of His Church, to offer up to God Eucharistic adoration for priests.

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Photograph by Brother Lawrence Lew, O.P., his commentary here.