At a daily mass, I shared with the people the need for a certain type of prayer.  We all need prayer, right?  We want to remain a living sign of the Kingdom for others. We also want to receive this wonderful privilege of the Eucharist more worthily. When one finds himself or herself with an unreconciled sin, what does he or she do? That person will come to the Sacrament of reconciliation. We know that the Church has given us guidance so that we know if certain acts or dispositions are sinful, right? We have all the tools. And, we have the sacrament available to us so that we may always receive the Eucharist in a state of grace. While this may be true for most of us, it isn’t true for all of us. Are you shocked? It’s true. Think about it. If you know that there is sin on your soul, you can make the decision not to receive the Eucharist at that moment and make a resolution to go to confession. Sometimes, you can even catch the priest before or after mass in the case of an emergency. But there is one person that can’t do that. There is one person who must receive the Eucharist. Who is this person? Yes, as much as we would like to think of priests as perfect, “All sin and fall short of the glory of God.” As we say our daily prayers, it would be advantageous for the whole church that prayers are said for the perseverance of the priest and the use of the sacrament of reconciliation when it is available to him.  It is easy for a priest to subconsciously avoid using the sacrament just as much or even more so than the average parishioner. But since the priest must receive the Eucharist, he needs the grace and opportunity to go.  Sometimes this isn’t done very easily. As we focus more and more on prayers for vocations, please remember those who have already entered a vocation too that all who receive will be receiving the Eucharist worthily. A good meditation before this prayer is 1 Corinthians 27-32. A short while back, I was asked to compile some thoughts or an opening reflection for our Advent Day of Prayer for the priests of my diocese. This was followed by a talk by visiting Cardinal Mahoney of the Los Angeles Archdiocese. I thought I'd share it with you.   We are a holy people, a royal nation, a people set apart. We are a people, not waiting for the Messiah for the first time, but for his return. We live in an age of Advent and celebrate it through the recollection of our history as God's people by remembering the longing for the first historical appearance of Jesus. We also know that Jesus cannot be broken into parts. Our historical appreciation of Jesus is limited by our experience of him. But our experience of him leads us to the reality of faith that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Therefore, Jesus is the Incarnation, the Passion, the Death, the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the Second Coming. As we celebrate this Advent Season, we come to a new understanding that when we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, we make a public witness that we who live in the realm of history are ready for His second coming as we receive His fullness in the Real Presence in the Sacrament of the Altar. In our leadership positions, we are challenged to grow in our own faith and not just our academic understanding. And so, we come before the Lord today to reflect on our relationship with Him and the application of what he has revealed. We come together to examine our success and failure in the Lord. We come together to raise the question, “how can we be more effective for the one we call Lord in conforming ourselves to Him?” We come to define and develop our integrity through our vocation and service to Him. We look to the imitation of the Blessed Virgin who said “yes” and “how.” Our integrity is challenged as we look to the Lord to help us move into a deeper reality of the Sacraments, to recapture the graces which flow to us from them, as well as how we apply those graces. We look to those who live the Sacrament of Matrimony to better understand the full reality of that which we long; the complete unity of Christ and His Bride, the Church. Our integrity is challenged as we look to our own vocations as those who often represent the Bride waiting for the Groom's return in anticipation and enthusiasm. We look to the preparation necessary for that unity through our ministry to others and our acceptance of the ministries offered to us for own spiritual growth. Our integrity is challenged as we examine our role of leadership and the quality that we exemplify by following the leadership that has been placed before us. We are challenged by the expectation of others following our lead and the contrast/comparison of our own ability to surrender and follow the leadership of others. Our integrity is challenged by our own willingness to confess our sins as freely as those who come to us as we administer the Sacrament of Forgiveness. We look to Jesus as the Truth, the Way, and the Life and our own willingness to expose the truths of our lives to Him for healing. We are challenged by our use of praise and worship to glorify God in contrast to self-affirmation when leading others to worship as we recognize that we are already affirmed by God through our Joyful revelation and knowledge that He is Lord. We are challenged as to how we contrast our feelings and academic study with the fundamental necessity of faith and conviction. We examine whether that faith merely intellectualized or revealed to others so that others may truly know our God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are challenged by our example and preaching of peace, justice, forgiveness, and restoration as we look to how we apply these principles of faith within the inner workings of the administrative church. We ask ourselves if there is true forgiveness?...but moreover, is there true restoration? Is it a true reality or a spoken philosophy? We are challenged by our own self-examination as to whether we are truly ready for the Lord's return by our individual spiritual disposition as we celebrate the Eucharist and the fullness of Christ's Presence among us. Heavenly Father, We turn to you as we reflect on your Son's first arrival into our history. Through the Holy spirit, we examine Christ's presence with us now as the Truth, the Way, and the Life. As we use this day for growth and examination of our lives, lead us by our challenges to a new understanding of our need to be ready to enjoy the fullness of unity at Christ's return. We ask this in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen