CCC 260 The ultimate end of the whole divine economy is the entry of God’s creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity.¹ But even now we are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity: “If a man loves me”, says the Lord, “he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him”:²
O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me forget myself entirely so to establish myself in you, unmovable and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing be able to trouble my peace or make me leave you, O my unchanging God, but may each minute bring me more deeply into your mystery! Grant my soul peace. Make it your heaven, your beloved dwelling and the place of your rest. May I never abandon you there, but may I be there, whole and entire, completely vigilant in my faith, entirely adoring, and wholly given over to your creative action.³

CCC 589 Jesus gave scandal above all when he identified his merciful conduct toward sinners with God’s own attitude toward them.⁴ He went so far as to hint that by sharing the table of sinners he was admitting them to the messianic banquet.⁵ But it was most especially by forgiving sins that Jesus placed the religious authorities of Israel on the horns of a dilemma. Were they not entitled to demand in consternation, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?”⁶ By forgiving sins Jesus either is blaspheming as a man who made himself God’s equal, or is speaking the truth and his person really does make present and reveal God’s name.⁷

CCC 690 Jesus is Christ, “anointed,” because the Spirit is his anointing, and everything that occurs from the Incarnation on derives from this fullness.⁸ When Christ is finally glorified,⁹ he can in turn send the Spirit from his place with the Father to those who believe in him: he communicates to them his glory,¹⁰ that is, the Holy Spirit who glorifies him.¹¹ From that time on, this joint mission will be manifested in the children adopted by the Father in the Body of his Son: the mission of the Spirit of adoption is to unite them to Christ and make them live in him:
The notion of anointing suggests. .. that there is no distance between the Son and the Spirit. Indeed, just as between the surface of the body and the anointing with oil neither reason nor sensation recognizes any intermediary, so the contact of the Son with the Spirit is immediate, so that anyone who would make contact with the Son by faith must first encounter the oil by contact. In fact there is no part that is not covered by the Holy Spirit. That is why the confession of the Son’s Lordship is made in the Holy Spirit by those who receive him, the Spirit coming from all sides to those who approach the Son in faith.¹²

CCC 729 Only when the hour has arrived for his glorification does Jesus promise the coming of the Holy Spirit, since his Death and Resurrection will fulfill the promise made to the fathers.¹³ The Spirit of truth, the other Paraclete, will be given by the Father in answer to Jesus’ prayer; he will be sent by the Father in Jesus’ name; and Jesus will send him from the Father’s side, since he comes from the Father. The Holy Spirit will come and we shall know him; he will be with us for ever; he will remain with us. The Spirit will teach us everything, remind us of all that Christ said to us and bear witness to him. The Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth and will glorify Christ. He will prove the world wrong about sin, righteousness, and judgment.

CCC 820 “Christ bestowed unity on his Church from the beginning. This unity, we believe, subsists in the Catholic Church as something she can never lose, and we hope that it will continue to increase until the end of time.”¹⁴ Christ always gives his Church the gift of unity, but the Church must always pray and work to maintain, reinforce, and perfect the unity that Christ wills for her. This is why Jesus himself prayed at the hour of his Passion, and does not cease praying to his Father, for the unity of his disciples: “That they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be one in us,. .. so that the world may know that you have sent me.”¹⁵ The desire to recover the unity of all Christians is a gift of Christ and a call of the Holy Spirit.¹⁶

CCC 877 Likewise, it belongs to the sacramental nature of ecclesial ministry that it have a collegial character. In fact, from the beginning of his ministry, the Lord Jesus instituted the Twelve as “the seeds of the new Israel and the beginning of the sacred hierarchy.”¹⁷ Chosen together, they were also sent out together, and their fraternal unity would be at the service of the fraternal communion of all the faithful: they would reflect and witness to the communion of the divine persons.¹⁸ For this reason every bishop exercises his ministry from within the episcopal college, in communion with the bishop of Rome, the successor of St. Peter and head of the college. So also priests exercise their ministry from within the presbyterium of the diocese, under the direction of their bishop.

CCC 2604 The second prayer, before the raising of Lazarus, is recorded by St. John.¹⁹ Thanksgiving precedes the event: “Father, I thank you for having heard me,” which implies that the Father always hears his petitions. Jesus immediately adds: “I know that you always hear me,” which implies that Jesus, on his part, constantly made such petitions. Jesus’ prayer, characterized by thanksgiving, reveals to us how to ask: before the gift is given, Jesus commits himself to the One who in giving gives himself. The Giver is more precious than the gift; he is the “treasure”; in him abides his Son’s heart; the gift is given “as well.”²⁰
The priestly prayer of Jesus holds a unique place in the economy of salvation.²¹ A meditation on it will conclude Section One. It reveals the ever present prayer of our High Priest and, at the same time, contains what he teaches us about our prayer to our Father, which will be developed in Section Two.

CCC 2746 When “his hour” came, Jesus prayed to the Father.²² His prayer, the longest transmitted by the Gospel, embraces the whole economy of creation and salvation, as well as his death and Resurrection. The prayer of the Hour of Jesus always remains his own, just as his Passover “once for all” remains ever present in the liturgy of his Church.

CCC 2749 Jesus fulfilled the work of the Father completely; his prayer, like his sacrifice, extends until the end of time. The prayer of this hour fills the end-times and carries them toward their consummation. Jesus, the Son to whom the Father has given all things, has given himself wholly back to the Father, yet expresses himself with a sovereign freedom²³ by virtue of the power the Father has given him over all flesh. The Son, who made himself Servant, is Lord, the Pantocrator. Our high priest who prays for us is also the one who prays in us and the God who hears our prayer.

CCC 2750 By entering into the holy name of the Lord Jesus we can accept, from within, the prayer he teaches us: “Our Father!” His priestly prayer fulfills, from within, the great petitions of the Lord’s Prayer: concern for the Father’s name;²⁴ passionate zeal for his kingdom (glory);²⁵ the accomplishment of the will of the Father, of his plan of salvation;²⁶ and deliverance from evil.²⁷

CCC 2751 Finally, in this prayer Jesus reveals and gives to us the “knowledge,” inseparably one, of the Father and of the Son,²⁸ which is the very mystery of the life of prayer.

CCC 2821 This petition is taken up and granted in the prayer of Jesus which is present and effective in the Eucharist; it bears its fruit in new life in keeping with the Beatitudes.²⁹

1 Cf. Jn 17:21-23.
2 Jn 14:23.
3 Prayer of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity.
4 Cf. Mt 9:13; Hos 6:6.
5 Cf. Lk 15:1-2, 22-32.
6 Mk 2:7.
7 Cf. Jn 5:18; 10:33; 17:6,26.
8 Cf. Jn 3:34.
9 Jn 7:39.
10 Cf. Jn 17:22.
11 Cf. Jn 16:14.
12 St. Gregory of Nyssa, De Spiritu Sancto, 16: PG 45, 1321A-B.
13 Cf. Jn 14:16-17, 26; 15:26; 16:7-15; 17:26.
14 UR 4 § 3.
15 Jn 17:21; cf. Heb 7:25.
16 Cf. UR 1.
17 AG 5.
18 Cf. Jn 17:21-23.
19 Cf. Jn 11:41-42.
20 Mt 6:21, 33.
21 Cf. Jn 17.
22 Cf. Jn 17.
23 Cf. Jn 17:11, 13, 19, 24.
24 Cf. Jn 17:6, 11, 12, 26.
25 Cf. Jn 17:1, 5, 10, 22, 23-26.
26 Cf. Jn 17:2, 4, 6, 9, 11, 12, 24.
27 Cf. Jn 17:15.
28 Cf. Jn 17:3, 6-10, 25.
29 Cf. Jn 17:17-20; Mt 5:13-16; 6:24; 7:12-13.