Thursday, August 27, 2009

What Jesus Expects From Priests

"And priests? Who can express all I expect from each of My priests...They are invested with My own power, that they may forgive sin...I Myself am obedient to their word when they summon Me from Heaven to earth...I am totally surrendered into their hands; they may confine Me to the tabernacle or give Me to the faithful in Holy Communion...They are, so to say, My almoners.
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"To each I have entrusted souls that by their preaching, their direction and above all by their example, they may guide them in the path of virtue.
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"What response do they make?...Do they all fulfill Love's mission?...Will this My minister at the altar confide the souls of his charges to Me today? Will he make reparation to Me for the offenses I receive, the secret of which has been entrusted to him? Will he entreat of Me the strength he needs to carry out in holiness his sacred ministry?...zeal to work for the salvation of souls...courage in self-sacrifice, more today than yesterday?...Will he give Me all the love I expect...and shall I be able to rely entirely on him as on My dear and well-beloved disciple?..O what cruel sorrow for My Heart, when I am forced to say: the world wounds Me in My hands and in My feet and it sullies My countenance...My chosen souls and My consecrated religious, My priests, they rend and break My Heart...How many priests after giving back grace to many souls are themselves in a state of sin!...How many say Mass thus...receive Me thus...live and die thus!...
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"Now you know what anguish oppressed me at the Last Supper when I saw in the midst of the twelve the first unfaithful apostle...and after him so many more who would follow him in the course of the ages."
~Words of Jesus to Sister Josefa Menendez from The Way of Divine Love ~


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. Amen.

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