Priesthood: May 2008 Archives

The thoughts of His Heart
are to all generations;
He will save their souls from death
and give them to eat in time of famine.
(Psalm 32:11, 19, Introit of the Mass of the Sacred Heart of Jesus).

To All Generations

The thoughts of the Sacred Heart of Jesus are to all generations, touching all, excluding no one. By His death, He rescues us from death; by the mysteries of His Body and Blood, He feeds every hungry heart.

All Priests

On this World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests, we recall that the thoughts of the Heart of Jesus embrace all priests from the first ones assembled with him in the Cenacle on the night before He suffered to those who will welcome Him when he returns in glory.

Beset by Sin and Repaired by Love

The Heart of Jesus has willed to have need of priests, weak men beset by sin and repaired by love. The Heart of Jesus sends out his priests for the healing, reconciliation, and restoration of those who, like themselves, stand at every moment in need of mercy. Speaking to a priest, Our Lord said:

"There has never been in all of history a single priest whom I have not destined for a great holiness. My Heart has suffered much because so many of my chosen ones have refused my gifts and, preferring their own ways to mine, gone into the outer darkness where it is night.

My Heart burns to see my priests all ablaze with Eucharistic holiness. The altar is the source of priestly holiness. The kiss given to the altar at the beginning and end of Holy Mass means that the priest recognizes this. By kissing the altar, he makes himself vulnerable to my piercing love. By kissing the altar he opens himself unreservedly to all that I would give him and to all that I hold in the designs of my Heart for his life. The kiss to the altar signifies total abandonment to the priestly holiness that I desire and to the fulfillment of my desires in the soul of my priest.

The holiness to which I call my priests, the holiness to which I am calling you, consists in a total configuration to me as I stand before my Father in the heavenly sanctuary, beyond the veil. Every priest of mine is to be with me both priest and victim in the presence of my Father. Every priest is called to stand before the altar with pierced hands and feet, with his side wounded, and with his head crowned as my head was crowned in my passion. You needn’t fear this configuration to me; it will bring you only peace of heart, joy in the presence of my Father, and that unique intimacy with me that I have, from the night before I suffered, reserved for my priests, my chosen ones, the friends of my Heart."

My Heart Thirsts for You

Mother Marie des Douleurs, writing for priests in the 1930s,
placed these words in the Heart and mouth of Our Lord:

“I have need of this body of priests
who continually will live their Mass,
who will continue my Passion.
My immolation must go on until the end of time;
I must find priests who will hand over to me
their bodies, their souls, their whole being so that in them,
I may be the one whom nearly no one accepts to recognize,
the Crucified.
You whom I have chosen
and marked for this mission glorious above all others,
will you not understand, will you too go away?
My Heart thirsts for you.
Do you not see all the souls torn away from me?
If my priests do not continue me, I am alone and powerless.”

Priests Passionately Loved

Mother's text, like the message of Our Lord to a priest cited above, is almost frightening in its lucidity and crushing in its implications, but it is meant to inspire today in each one a more ardent prayer for all priests, chosen and passionately loved by the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Collect of the Votive Mass of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Eternal High Priest

O God, by whom Thine only-begotten Son has been established High and Eternal Priest, to the glory of Thy majesty and for the salvation of mankind, grant that those He has chosen as ministers and dispensers of His mysteries, may be found faithful in fulfilling the ministry they have accepted.
Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.

The WorldPriest website features a special page on today's worldwide observance and on the Mass that will be broadcast live from the Shrine of Our Lady of Knock in Ireland. Don't miss the brilliant advertising campaign materials in both English and Spanish. Heartfelt thanks to our friends at WorldPriest.

Sursum Corda

Given all the demoralizing and cranky rants about priests that float through the blogosphere, I find it more than ever necessary to point to models of priestly virtue and holiness. I am a great believer in visiting each day a gallery of heavenly heroes. Sursum corda! Hearts on high! This is one of the reasons why holy priests like Padre Leopoldo Pastori, Saint Peter Julian Eymard, Saint Gaetano Catanoso, Saint Théophane Vénard, Saint Claude La Colombière, and others, so often figure prominenty on Vultus Christi.

The Offering of Little Souls

Precious few in the Church are given the incisive and prophetic charisms of a Saint Peter Damian or of a Fra Girolamo Savonarola. All the members of Christ's Body are, however, called to a life of Eucharistic oblation: "And now, brethren, I appeal to you by God's mercies to offer up your bodies as a living sacrifice, consecrated to God and worthy of his acceptance" (Rom 12:1). Even "little souls," hidden in the humdrum activities of ordinary life, can offer themselves quietly but effectively for the sanctification of priests; for the deliverance of priests oppressed by the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil; for the refreshment of priests grown weary in their service; for the conversion of priests who may have compromised with sin.

The Sin Never Lost to My Sight

There is not a priest alive who cannot say every morning with the psalmist, "Wash me clean, cleaner yet, from my guilt, purge me of my sin, the guilt which I freely acknowledge, the sin which is never lost to my sight" (Ps 50:4). I, for one, am acutely conscious of that part of my being that is "a shell of perishable earthenware" (2 Cor 4:7). Saint Paul's words find an echo in my heart:

"We have a treasure, then, in our keeping, but its shell is of perishable earthenware; it must be God, and not anything in ourselves, that gives it its sovereign power. For ourselves, we are being hampered everywhere, yet still have room to breathe, are hard put to it, but never at a loss; persecution does not leave us unbefriended, nor crushing blows destroy us; we carry about continually in our bodies the dying state of Jesus, so that the living power of Jesus, may be manifested in our bodies too" (2 Cor 4:7-10).

Some Proposals

The World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests that will be observed on this coming Friday, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, invites all of us — clergy, consecrated men and women, and lay faithful — to consider making certain resolutions. I would propose, for example:

“For this were we called and it is for the sake of priests that the Lord presses us to let ourselves be immolated entirely. We should have for the souls of priests . . . a burning zeal and a sort of jealousy that will spur us on to work better, to pray better, to suffer better, so that they may be more and more priestly.

We have been promoted by the Lord Himself to give birth to holiness in the souls of priests. We also, and in a super-eminent way, must become the mothers of priests. Oh! How crucial it is for this high function that we humble ourselves profoundly and put no limit to our generosity.”

Mother Marie des Douleurs (1902–1983)
Foundress of the Congregation of the Benedictines of Jesus Crucified

A Missionary-Monk

The World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests will be observed this coming Friday, May 30th, Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It may well spark a greater interest in models of priestly holiness. Yesterday, for example, was the dies natalis of Father Leopoldo Pastori (1939-1996), an Italian missionary monk in Guinea-Bissau.

The Will of the Father

Born in Lodi, Italy on February 9, 1939, Leopoldo entered the PIME Fathers (Pontifical Institute for the Foreign Missions) in September 1957. On May 1, 1961, he received the clerical habit. In his photo album of pictures taken that day, Leopoldo wrote:

Come Gesù giovinetto, mi porto all' altare del Padre e con Gesù offro la mia giovinezza per fare la volontà del Padre. Non c'è cosa più bella al mondo che fare sempre e ovunque la volontà di Dio: fonte di pace e di consolazione.

"Like the young lad Jesus, I bring myself to the altar of the Father and with Jesus I offer my youth to do the will of the Father. There is nothing more beautiful in the world than always and everywhere to do the will of God: the wellspring of peace and of consolation."

To Love the Madonna and Make Her Loved

Maria! Ecco un tesoro che vengo a scoprire continuamente. La mia vestizione è stata tanto bella e felice perché mi ero preparato con la Madonna. Maria ! Se ho un desiderio forte, è quello di amare tanto e di far amare la Madonna.

"Mary! Behold a treasure that I am coming to discover continually. My vestition was so beautiful and happy because I prepared myself with the Madonna. Mary! If I have one strong desire it is this one: to love the Madonna so much, and to make her loved."

Changing Times

Leopoldo was ordained a priest on June 29, 1969. Instead of being sent straightaway to the foreign missions, he was assigned to the PIME Minor Seminary built by Blessed John XXIII in Sotto Il Monte. The ideological climate was marked by May 1968. A popular slogan among confused young clerics was, "Obedience is no longer a virtue." Leopoldo remained constant, faithful to his life of prayer and to the ascetical disciplines he had chosen for himself.

To the Missions

In 1972, Father Leopoldo went for the first time to visit the PIME missions in Guinea-Bissau. In 1974, at thirty-five years of age, he was assigned to those same missions. To his friends he wrote, "I am leaving in the name of Jesus and for love of Him; only in this why can I feel that my life is right." He devotes himself to the poor, visits the sick, and forms a local orchestra for young people. His afternoons are given to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and to reading. Father Leopoldo wrote:

Il lavoro è importantissimo, l'impegno e le attività importantissimi, necessari, ma se non c'è un'unione insistente, profonda e frequente con Gesù, soprattutto nell'Eucarestia, tutto il resto non serve a niente, finisce solo in una delusione, in mani vuote, nel cercare continuamente di seminare ma seminare a vuoto.

"Work is most important, duties and activity are most important and necessary, but if there is not an insistant, profound, and frequent union with Jesus, above all in the Eucharist, all the rest is worth nothing, it ends only in a delusion, in empty hands, trying continually to sow the seed, but sowing in a void."

Illness

In July 1977 Father Leopoldo is found to be suffering from hepatitis. He is hospitalized in the international clinic in Dakar. He accepts the solitude of his hospitalization, prays constantly, and seeks union with Christ present in the Blessed Sacrament. He goes to the Benedictines in Cap-des-Biches for a month of convalescence. In March 1978 he returns to Italy to serve as rector of the seminary at Sotto Il Monte. He remains there until 1996.

Prego sempre che il Signore, dopo questo forzato "esilio", mi dia la grazia di ritornare ancora in Guinea. Il vescovo mi aspetta.

"I am always praying that the Lord, after this forced exile, will give me the grace to return again to Guinea. The bishop is waiting for me."

Silence

On September 23, 1990, Father Leopoldo receives his missionary crucifix for the second time. He returns to Guinea on December 16, 1990. He will remain there for five and a half years: the most fruitful years of his life.

Sto acclimatandomi bene in questa nuova casa, con una bellissima chiesa. Mi trovo bene. Per ora faccio la vita del missionario-monaco, attorniato da un silenzio profondo, cadenzato dal richiamo di tanti uccelli, cicale, grilli, e dai canti notturni dei villaggi vicini. . . . A poco a poco mi inserisco nel lavoro, che è soprattutto di animazione spirituale, approfondimento dei contenuti missionari alla gente.

"I am acclimatizing myself well in this new house with a most beautiful church. I am well here. For the moment I am leading the life of a missionary-monk, surrounded by a profound silence, marked by the calls of so many birds, cicadas, crickets, and by the nocturnal songs of the villages . . . . Little by little I insert myself into the work: mostly spiritual direction, the deepening of the missionary message to the people."

Father Leopoldo has deep spiritual affinities with Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, and with Blessed Charles de Jésus (de Foucauld), whom he calls, quoting Pope Paul VI, "one of the greatest missionaries of the century."

Five Hours of Prayer Daily

Prayer holds the first place in Father Leopoldo's missionary life:

Sto cercando di vivere il mio ideale: essere missionario-contemplativo per annunziare Cristo in modo credibile ("Redemptoris Missio", n. 91). Do molto tempo alla preghiera davanti all'Eucarestia, almeno cinque ore al giorno, come facevano i primi missionari del Pime. E sto provando, dato che Gesù vuole crescere e io diminuire, che la preghiera sta diventando continua, di giorno e, quando mi sveglio, di notte!

"I am seeking to live my ideal: to be a missionary-contemplative so as to announce Christ in a credible manner ("Redemptoris Missio," n. 91). I give much time to prayer before the Eucharist, at least five hours a day, as did the first PIME missionaries. And I am experiencing, given that Jesus wants to increase and wants me to decrease, that prayer is becoming continual, by day, and when I wake up, by night."

All Priest

In recalling the holiness of Saint Philip, it occurs to me that it was essentially this: he was all priest. He was always and everywhere a priest. His priesthood suffused his very being, making him incandescent with the fire of the Cross and of the altar. As we prepare to observe the World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests on this coming Friday, June 30th, Saint Philip Neri makes his appearance to stimulate our generosity, and to show us what happens when a priest surrenders to the fire of Divine Love.

Spiritual Combat: The Seven Capital Sins

Have no illusions about priestly holiness. Like all men, priests are locked in a combat to the death with the seven capital sins: pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth. Priests are, if anything, subject to more subtle and more violent temptations than anyone else because they are Satan’s preferred quarry. Is the propensity to any one particular sin worse than the propensity to another? I dare not speculate about secrets of conscience. God alone probes the mind and heart.

To God All Things Are Possible

Souls called in a particular way to offer themselves for the sanctification of the clergy should entertain no illusions about the seriousness of their apostolic mission. There were, there are, and there always will be prideful priests, covetous priests, lustful priests, angry priests, gluttonous priests, priests who are drunkards, priests who consumed by envy, and priests who are lazy. One might be tempted then to say with the disciples in today’s Gospel, “Why then, who can be saved?’ (Mk 10:26). Listen to Our Lord’s reply. Jesus spoke it, according to Saint Mark, with His eyes fastened on the disciples. “Such things are impossible to man’s powers, but not to God’s; to God, all things are possible” (Mk 10:27).

Spiritual Maternity

Read the appeal from Rome, asking women in all states of life to become spiritual mothers to priests, and calling for a worldwide movement of adoration in a spirit of reparation and supplication for the priesthood. It is not enough to read it once and file it away. Our Lord will hold those women who consent to spiritual motherhood accountable for the sins and for the sanctity of a multitude of priests. Does this shock you? It shouldn’t. Saint Paul says, “A man’s body is all one, though it has a number of different organs; and all this multitude of organs goes to make up one body; so it is with Christ. . . . If one part is suffering, all the rest suffer with it; if one part is treated with honour, all the rest find pleasure in it. And you are Christ’s body, organs of it depending upon each other” (1 Cor 12:12, 26-27). Again, the Apostle says in another place, “Bear the burden of one another’s failings; then you will be fulfilling the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2).

I find my consolation in the one and only companion who will never leave me, that is, our Divine Saviour in the Holy Eucharist. . . .

Blessed Damien de Veuster, SS.CC.

A Priest–Icon of the Suffering Christ

The saints, all of them, are living illustrations of the power of the Holy Spirit. The saints are the masterpieces of the Divine Iconographer who, in every age, writes in souls the whole mystery of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the Finger of God’s Right Hand tracing on hearts of flesh the likeness of the Heart of Jesus. In Blessed Damian of Molokai the Church sets before us a priest fashioned by the Holy Spirit in a special way into the image of the suffering Christ, “despised and rejected by man, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Is 53:3).

From a Priest's Notebook

A priest shares what was given him in prayer concerning a sacerdotal Pentecost, a Pentecost of priests, a revival of priestly holiness in the Church. I translated the text from the original French. The image shows Saint John the Apostle on Pentecost.

Aujourd’hui, je crois que c’était pendant les mystères glorieux du rosaire, le Seigneur m’a parlé dune Pentecôte sacerdotale, d’une grâce obtenue par l’intercession de la Vierge Marie pour tous les prêtres de l'Église. À tous sera offerte la grâce d’une nouvelle effusion de l’Esprit Saint pour purifier le sacerdoce des impuretés qui l’ont défiguré et pour redonner au sacerdoce un éclat de sainteté tel qu’il n’a jamais eu dans Église depuis le temps des apôtres.

"Today, I think it was during the glorious mysteries of the rosary, the Lord spoke to me of a sacerdotal Pentecost, of a grace obtained by the intercession of the Virgin Mary for all the priests of the Church. To all [priests] will be offered the grace of a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit to purify the priesthood of the impurities that have disfigured it, and to restore to the priesthood a brightness of holiness such as the Church has never had since the times of the Apostles."

Cette Pentecôte sacerdotale se prépare déjà dans le silence et dans l’adoration du Saint Sacrement. Les prêtres qui aiment Marie et qui sont fidèles à prier leur chapelet seront les premiers à en bénéficier. Leur sacerdoce sera merveilleusement renouvelé et il leur sera donné une abondance de charismes pour vaincre le mal et guérir ceux qui sont sous l’emprise du Mauvais. Il m’est donné de comprendre que l’intercession du Pape Jean-Paul II a aussi joué un rôle en obtenant par Marie cette grâce de la Pentecôte sacerdotale.

"This sacerdotal Pentecost is being prepared already in silence and in the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. The priests who love Mary and who are faithful to pray her rosary will be the first ones to benefit from it. Their priesthood will be wonderfully renewed and they will be given an abundance of charisms to vanquish evil and to heal those under the sway of the Evil One. It was given me to understand that the intercession of Pope John Paul II will also have played a role in obtaining through Mary this grace of the Pentecost of Priests."

Certains prêtres refuseront cette grâce de la Pentecôte sacerdotale, soit par orgueil, soit par manque de confiance, soit par une absence de foi en la présence réelle du Christ au Saint Sacrement. Cette Pentecôte sacerdotale partira du tabernacle (ou des tabernacles du monde) comme d’un foyer ardent de charité. Les prêtres qui auront été trouvés fidèles à tenir compagnie à Jésus-Hostie se réjouiront. Ils comprendront tout de suite les merveilles qu’il voudra faire en eux et par eux. La Pentecôte sacerdotale rejoindra d’abord les prêtres qui sont de vrais fils de Marie, vivant comme Saint Jean, dans son intimité, tout près de son Cœur immaculé.

"Certain priests will refuse this grace of the sacerdotal Pentecost, out of pride, or a lack of confidence, or an absence of faith in the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. This sacerdotal Pentecost will begin from the tabernacle (or the tabernacles of the world) as from a burning hearth of charity. Priests who will have been found faithful in keeping company with Jesus the Host will rejoice. They will understand straightaway the wonders that He will want to do in them and through them. The sacerdotal Pentecost will affect first of all the priests who are true sons of Mary, living like Saint John, in her intimacy, very close to her Immaculate Heart."

For The Reverend Monsignor Arthur B. Calkins on the 38th Anniversary of His Ordination to the Holy Priesthood:

"The Holy Spirit will honour Mary and, through Mary, the Holy Spirit will be honoured, beginning from the heart of priests. Two new glories are held in reserve for the world: the reign of the Holy Spirit through Mary and a new awareness stirred up by the Holy Spirit in the spiritual and Christian world of the sorrowful and loving years of Mary's solitude. In these two things, I too will be honoured together with my Father from whom I never separate myself, in the unity of the Holy Spirit.

And so, if my priests want to make progress in virtue they must do it by means of Mary; if they want to grow in knowledge and in love for the Holy Spirit, they must become ever more hers. More and more then let them make known and glorify these years of her solitude.

There is nothing surer than to avail themselves of the Holy Spirit and of Mary for their transformation into Me and, even more, for the perfection (insofar as this is possible on earth) of the union of the members of the Church among themselves, and the perfect Unity in the Trinity that I am seeking in a thousand ways."

The text is from Sacerdoti di Cristo by Conchita Cabrera de Armida, p. 387. The translation is my own.