"Our configurement as priests is the Lord's Cross. That is the essential shape of our vocation. Our Lord entered His spousal relationship with the Church by being crucified, by dying, having His Sacred Heart thrust through with a lance. The only way this mystery becomes incarnate in our heart and flesh is through the cross.
"The priesthood is a beautiful life, but it is not an easy life...because the cross is the shape of our vocation, when you suffer as a priest it is not an indication that you made the wrong choice. It is, in fact, the confirmation that you made the right choice. Jesus confirms the vocation by conforming us more to the shape of crucified love, and so, in love, the Lord asks you to surrender to Him your idea of hapiness, your idea of what your priesthood will look like, your idea even of how to become a good priest--and to be willing to be taught and surprised by Him, and to be willing to enter into the darkness of sinners and to suffer with them and for them, and so be established in the supernatural joy of crucified love."
(Fr. John Cihak speaks about the gift of the holy Priesthood during the first Mass of Fr. Theodore Lange, St. Joseph Church in Salem Oregon, June 14, 2009.)
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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