To a newly ordained priest

Praised be Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

The season of Lent always opens with the Gospel on the Temptation of the Lord in the desert on account of the fact that this season is a 40 day fast in imitation of the 40 day fast of the Lord Jesus in the desert. “He fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, and afterwards he was hungry.” It was then that the tempter approached the Lord. Why tempt Jesus? It is because Jesus is the Son of God. He comes from God. He belongs to God. This fact made Jesus more desirable to the devil. He wanted to get Jesus because Jesus does not belong to him. The devil’s hatred for God moves him to steal what belongs to God in order to destroy its beauty and integrity. The devil works this way even until now. He loves to disturb seminaries and monasteries precisely for the same reason: he wants to destroy what belongs to God.

When the bishop laid his hands on you and prayed the prayer of ordination, Fr. Arvie, you were changed in a very special way. Not only were you given special powers, you were given a new identity…you became a priest, configured in the likeness of Christ who is the High Priest of the New Covenant. In a way, the identity of Jesus becomes yours. This is what it means when we say that the priest is Alter Christus. Yes, you are another Christ through whom the Lord Jesus will continue to perform his saving mission for the life of the world. By the Sacrament of Holy Orders, Jesus draws you close to him. You are consecrated to him. You belong to Jesus.

Thus, Fr. Arvie, you become a more attractive prey for the devil. He will want you because your hands are anointed. He will want you because you are anointed. He wants you for the simple reason that you belong to the Lord whom the devil hates so much. The devil will constantly tempt you through your hunger. He will tempt you to turn stones into bread, to take advantage of your priesthood for monetary purposes. There will always be something you need to have, something you need to buy. And I will tell you…it is really very easy for a priest to fall for this temptation as we all know that religion can easily be turned into a lucrative business. Fr. Arvie, do not set your heart to the love of money. Always set your heart on higher things for man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

The devil will constantly seduce you through your need for affirmation. He will tempt you to make a spectacle of yourself. There will always be applause and recognition which will make you want for more.  And I tell you, it is really easy for a priest to fall for this temptation as we all know that admirers will easily be organized into fans’ club and make you a celebrity. Fr. Arvie, do not perform your religious office for other people to see. Even in the performance of your priestly office, always learn to enter into the inner room of your heart. You do not need the adulation and approval of admirers. You are not a celebrity but a priest. The only one thing you need is the approval of the Father who sees everything in secret.

The devil will constantly seduce you to seek kingdoms, to seek positions of power and prestige. Ikaw pa, Fr. Arvie, you have what it takes to pursue a career in the Church. I tell you, with your intellectual capabilities, you can easily seek promotions in the curia. Fr. Arvie, always keep in mind that the priesthood is not a career. It is a vocation, a way of life that is closely associated with the Sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. Your life as a priest is not a pursuit of promotions. Rather, it is one of self-abnegation. The priesthood is an unending sacrifice. It is an experience of one self-denial after another in imitation of Jesus who emptied himself and took the form of a human slave and humiliated himself even further by obediently accepting even death, death on a Cross. Imitate Christ the Obedient One. His obedience made many righteous. Be obedient to the Bishop. Allow him to break your will if necessary. Obey without question. Obey without complaint. Give up the right to choose your career path. Let it be the bishop’s problem to determine the path your priestly life will take. Remember that the voice of the bishop is the voice of God. Christ’s sacrifice is pleasing on account of his unconditional obedience. Make your offering pleasing also through your unconditional obedience.

Fr. Arvie, keep in mind what the priesthood is…it is the service of God. You were chosen by him. You belong to him. Always serve the Lord single-heartedly. Serve the Lord for his sake. Prefer nothing to the love of Christ. Love the Lord with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your heart, and with all your strength. The Lord your God shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.

Jesus, I trust in you. O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Help Priests be Priests

Praised be Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

It was a busy day for the Lord and his apostles: “People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat.” Even when they went off in a boat by themselves to a deserted place, people hastened on foot to that place. The sight of the vast crowd waiting for them on the shore must have exasperated the apostles, but it moved the Lord’s heart to pity “for they were like sheep without a shepherd.” What should have been taken as an opportunity for rest was spent by our Lord ministering to people: “he began to teach them many things.”

That pity which moved the heart of our Lord is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Jeremiah in the first reading: “You have scattered my sheep and driven them away. You have not cared for them…I myself will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands to which I have driven them and bring them back to their meadows; there they will increase and multiply.”

The Lord associates men to this task of ministering to his flock: “I will appoint shepherds for them who will shepherd them so that they need no longer fear and tremble; and none shall be missing.” The task of caring for the Lord’s flock is truly a huge task which demands immense personal sacrifices. In speaking to priests, the Holy Father said: “You must think above all, not so much of your own personal good, but of the service to the holy people of God, who need pastors who dedicate themselves to the beautiful service of the sanctification of the faithful…” (Benedict XVI to the Pontifical Spanish College of St. Joseph, May 10, 2012.)    

Knowing the human limitation of those whom he appointed as shepherds of his flock, the Lord tells his apostles: “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” The rest which the Lord offers his disciples is none other than prayer which should be part of a priest’s daily schedule. “Remember that the priest renews his life and draws strength for his ministry from contemplation of the Divine Word and intense dialogue with the Lord. He is aware that he will be unable to take Christ to his brethren or to meet him in the poor and the sick, if he does not first discover him in fervent and constant prayer. It is necessary to nourish a personal relationship with the One whom he then proclaims, celebrates, and communicates. Herein lies the foundation of priestly spirituality, until one becomes a transparent sign and living witness of the Good Shepherd.”

If we want our priests to minister to us in the manner desired by our Lord, we must help them maintain the high standard of priestly spirituality. This we do providing them ample time to pray. The demands of pastoral life are already immense. The least we can do is not to tempt priests to spend the little time of their rest for “unpriestly” things. The little times of rest for a priest should be spent in prayer and study. It is not right to require of priests to live a secular lifestyle so that they can be like the rest of us. If we expect them to teach us well, give them time to study. If we expect them help us along the way of holiness, give them time to pray. In other words, help priests be priests. Help priests serve you well.

Jesus, I trust in you. O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Need for Holiness in the Priesthood

The Feast of the Sacred Heart is the World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of the Clergy. This feast gives us the occasion to speak about the relationship between the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the holiness that is demanded of the clergy and of the entire People of God as well.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart allows us to look into the interior life of Christ. The image of the Sacred Heart shows us an exposed human heart – something which seems strange as all of us know that the heart is an internal organ. The iconography of the Sacred Heart thus teaches us that Jesus is the Master, the Teacher of the Interior life. As priests and religious, it is only right that we should concern ourselves with the interior life. It is our task to imitate the beloved apostle who leaned towards the breast of the Lord to learn the secrets of his Heart. It is also our task to testify, like the same beloved apostle, to the gushing forth of blood and water from the opened Heart of the Redeemer. These images of the beloved disciple and the Lord are truly intimate images expressive of the intimate friendship which we priests should enjoy with the Lord. To me, the priest is first and foremost a friend of the Lord. Before all our pastoral duties, we ourselves must first “draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation,” “be strengthened through his Spirit in the inner self,”   and “comprehend…what is the breadth which surpasses knowledge.” In other words, we who share in the priesthood of Christ must lead lives of profound interiority. We must be men who constantly go to our inner rooms to pray to our Father in secret. The Holy Father has time and again reminded us of the necessity of retreating from activity in order to sit at the feet of our Lord and be truly his disciples.

The letter coming from the Congregation of the Clergy reminds us of this: “The expression found in Scripture ‘This is the will of God: your holiness!’ (1 Thess 4:3), though addressed to all Christians, refers to us priests in particular, for we have accepted the invitation to ‘sanctify ourselves’ and to become ‘ministers of sanctification’ for our brothers. In our case, this ‘will of God’ is, so to speak, doubled and multiplied to infinity, and we must obey it in everything we do. This is our wonderful destiny: we cannot be sanctified without working on the holiness of our brothers, and we cannot work on the holiness of our brothers unless we have first worked on and continue to work on our own holiness.” The Sacrament of Holy Orders configures us to Christ. We must acquire not only the mind of Christ, but his Heart as well. If St. Augustine calls the priesthood as amoris officium (Sacramentum Caritatis, 23.), then it is very clear that we must acquire the Heart of Christ. The flock of Christ deserves to be loved by nothing less than the love of the Lord. Thus, the responsory of the Litany of the Sacred Heart should truly be a priest’s prayer: “Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto thine!” This conversion of our hearts into the Heart of Christ cannot be made possible drawing close to his opened Heart to learn its inscrutable riches. It cannot be made possible without looking upon him whom we have pierced.

St. Claude de la Columbiere, SJ, the spiritual director of St. Margaret Mary, lived in the friendship of Christ’s Sacred Heart. It would be good to end our meditation with his prayer: “My Jesus, You are my true Friend. My only Friend. You take part in all my misfortunes. You know how to turn them into blessings. You listen to me with great kindness when I tell you all my troubles, and You always have something with which to heal my wounds. I find You at any time of the day or night, for I find You wherever I happen to be.  You never leave me. If I change my dwelling place, I find You wherever I go. You never weary of listening to me. I am certain of being loved by You, if I but love You. My worldly goods are of no value to you, but by bestowing Yours on me You never grow the poorer. However miserable I may be, no one more noble, more clever, or even more holy, can come between You and me and deprive me of Your friendship. And death, which tears us away from all other friends will unite me forever to You. All the humiliations attached to old age or the loss of honor will never separate You from me; On the contrary, I shall never enjoy You more fully and You will never be closer to me than when everything seems to conspire against me and cast me down. You bear with all my faults with extreme patience. Even my lack of fidelity and my ingratitude do not wound You to such a degree as to make You unwilling to receive me back when I return to You. O Jesus, grant that I may die loving You and that I may die for love of You.   Amen.”

Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto thine!

The Anointing of Christ

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because he has anointed me.

At the end of the Lenten Season, we gather today for the consecration of the oils used for the sacraments of the Church. At the same time, as we approach the “night he was betrayed,” priests gather around their bishop to remember their own anointing when they were ordained. It had to be this day when Christ instituted the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Orders that both the anointing of Christ and of his priests be celebrated in this Chrism Mass. The opening prayer today speaks of Jesus as the one anointed with the Holy Spirit by the Father and also of ourselves as “made sharers in his consecration.”

What does it mean to be consecrated? In his 2^nd volume of Jesus of Nazareth, the Holy Father says, “Consecration means that God is exercising a total claim over this man, ‘setting him apart’ for himself, yet at the same time, sending him out for the nations.” (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, part 2, p. 87) The Father consecrated Jesus. Thus, Jesus belongs entirely to the Father. And that is what makes Jesus “entirely for all.” Being for the Father, Jesus offers himself as a sacrifice “for the life of the world” (John 6:51). “Jesus is the priest sent into the world by the Father; he himself is the sacrifice that is made present in the Eucharist of all times.” (Jesus of Nazareth, part 2, p. 88)

You and I, being disciples of the Lord, are drawn into Jesus’ consecration. We too “are included in this reappropriation into God’s sphere and the ensuing mission for the world.” (Jesus of Nazareth, part 2, p. 89) In making us sharers in Christ’s consecration, the Father exercises a total claim over our persons as well. We belong entirely to the Father. And Jesus consecrated us in truth – “not just ritually, but truly, in (our) whole being.” (Ibid.) The priesthood we share with Jesus is more than just a ritual function. It is more than a 9 to 5 job or a profession. This priesthood is who we are – the truth in the ontological level. We are priests even outside the confines of the parish or even of the diocese. We are priests even outside our ritual functions. We are consecrated in the very core of our beings. Ordination produced an ontological change in who we are. It configured us with Christ the High Priest. The Spirit who anointed Jesus is the same Spirit who anoints us. The Spirit who sent Jesus to bring glad tidings to the poor is the same Spirit who sends us in an identical mission. The Spirit who made Jesus the “bearer of the oil of gladness” makes us the same: “You yourselves shall be named priests of the Lord, ministers of our God shall you be called.”

Bearers of glad tidings to the poor and bearers of the oil of gladness to those who mourn – this is what we are, dear priests of Jesus Christ. This we are because, by who we are and what we do, we bring Jesus to the world and the world to Jesus. It is Jesus who is the joy of every human heart. Jesus is the one “who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his own Blood.” “Jesus Christ (is), the ‘pioneer and perfecter of our faith’ (Heb 12:2): in him, all the anguish and all the longing of the human heart finds fulfilment. The joy of love, the answer to the drama of suffering and pain, the power of forgiveness in the face of an offence received and the victory of life over the emptiness of death: all this finds fulfilment in the mystery of his Incarnation, in his becoming man, in his sharing our human weakness so as to transform it by the power of his resurrection. In him who died and rose again for our salvation” (Benedict XVI, Porta Fidei, 13.) It is our task to bring people to Christ: “The Church as a whole and all her Pastors, like Christ, must set out to lead people out of the desert, towards the place of life, towards friendship with the Son of God, towards the One who gives us life, and life in abundance.”(Porta Fidei, 2) “It is the love of Christ that fills our hearts and impels us to evangelize. Today as in the past, he sends us through the highways of the world to proclaim his Gospel to all the peoples of the earth (cf. Mt 28:19). Through his love, Jesus Christ attracts to himself the people of every generation: in every age he convokes the Church, entrusting her with the proclamation of the Gospel by a mandate that is ever new. Today too, there is a need for stronger ecclesial commitment to new evangelization in order to rediscover the joy of believing and the enthusiasm for communicating the faith. In rediscovering his love day by day, the missionary commitment of believers attains force and vigour that can never fade away. Faith grows when it is lived as an experience of love received and when it is communicated as an experience of grace and joy. It makes us fruitful, because it expands our hearts in hope and enables us to bear life-giving witness: indeed, it opens the hearts and minds of those who listen to respond to the Lord’s invitation to adhere to his word and become his disciples.” (Porta Fidei, 7)

Therefore, as we renew today our ordination promises, let us keep in mind that we are committing ourselves not only to a task but to the very person of Jesus Christ. He is our first and only love. “Prompted by love of him, (we) willingly and joyfully pledged (our sacred duties towards Christ’s Church) on the day of (our) priestly ordination.” (Renewal of Priestly Promises) Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before him singing for joy! (Psalm 100:2)

The Mass and the Priest

For each priest, the celebration of the Holy Mass is the reason for his existence. It is, it must be, an entirely personal encounter with the Lord and with his redemptive work. At the same time, each priest, in the celebration of the Eucharist, is Christ himself present in the Church as Head of his body; and he also acts in the name of the whole Church “when presenting to God the prayer of the Church, and above all when offering the Eucharistic sacrifice”. When we experience the wonder of the Eucharistic gift, which transforms us and configures us to Christ, there is only room for amazement, gratitude and obedience.

His Eminence Cardinal Antonio Cañizares

5 March 2012, University of the Holy Cross

The Means to Renew the Face of the Earth

The Lord said, I have come to light a fire on the earth and how I wish it were blazing. How can priests light the world with the fire of the Holy Spirit and so be instruments in renewing the face of the earth? St. Anthony Claret has this to say:

"The prophet asked the Lord: Emitte Spiritum tuum, et creabuntur, et renovabis faciem terrae. Lord, send your spirit upon your priests, and they, filled with this Holy Spirit, will hasten everywhere, like the apostles, and the face of the earth will be changed completely. For the moral earth does the same thing that the physical earth does: if it is well cultivated it yields abundant fruits, but if it is not cultivated it yield nothing but weeds and thorns. Thus people, if they are well cultivated, produce choice fruits of virtue, but if they are abandoned to themselves, they produce nothing but errors and vices. Hence we must work to form good clergy, who are the laborers in the Lord's fields, and we must ask the good Lord of the harvest to send good laborers to his inheritance.

The means assigned to change the face of the earth promptly and easily are the following:

The 1st means is to form good, virtuous, and well-educated priests, and we have no doubt that this will be achieved if we put into practice the means indicated in the present little work.

The 2nd means are missions, which should be repeated every three years in parishes great and small, lasting for a varying number of days, according to the needs of the people.

The 3rd means is that on all Sundays and Feast days of the year, the pastors should preach or read some talk, and teach Christian doctrine and the way to make mental and vocal prayer.

The 4th means is instructing girls and boys in catechism, morals, and religion. Radical reform must begin with the children.

The 5th means is not to allow boys and girls to receive the Eucharist without making a First Communion, preceded by a preparatory retreat, and followed by enrollment in a confraternity, so that they may continue receiving the sacraments monthly or every 2 or 3 months.

The 6th means is to revive those confraternities that are already established in parishes but have fallen off, and have them fulfill their statutes exactly, beginning with a few good and more fervent souls.

The 7th means is to keep Sundays and Feast days holy, not only because God commands it, but also that they may be devoted to spiritual gatherings, frequenting the sacraments and pious reading, so that everyone may keep God's law and pray.

The 8th means is to strive to spread good books.

The 9th means is to practice the 14 works of charity or mercy.

The 10th means is to exhort those who can do so to attend Mass daily, to say a 3rd part of the Rosary, to direct all they do to the greater glory of God, to suffer all afflictions with patience, to walk always in the presence of God, and to receive the holy Sacraments frequently.

St. Anthony Claret, The Well-Instructed Seminarian, Vol 11, Chap. III, 5.

The Program for a truly Priestly Life

Emerging from our yearly retreat, I am concerned about how to keep the priestly spirituality. St. Anthony Mary Claret has this program for priests which is worth our consideration:

"If you would not extinguish or sadden the spirit and grace you have received in ordination (for by the grace of God you are what you are), if you would not have received the grace of God in vain, and if, finally, you would like to be a good and faithful servant, then you must distribute your time well in a plan of life which you must keep most faithfully. You may use the one which we are going to trace out for you here, or else use some other that may seem better for you.

1. Every year. You will make a spiritual retreat.

2. Every three months. On the Ember Days, you will call to mind your ordination...

3. Every month. You will have a day of recollection, during which you will read your resolutions.

4. Every week. You will receive the Sacrament of Penance.

5. Every day. You will set the hour for rising, after 6 or 7 hours of sleep, and you will be punctual in rising at that time, without allowing yourself to be misled by Satan into committing an act of sloth.

6. You will offer God all the works of the day.

7. You will have an hour, or at least half an hour, of mental prayer.

8. You will celebrate Holy Mass with devotion, preparing yourself in advance and giving thanks afterwards.

9. You will station yourself in the confessional, even when there may be no one waiting to confess; for if they do not come one day, they will come another, seeing that you give them the opportunity.

10. You will recite the lesser Hours with pauses and with devotion.

11, You will occupy yourself by studying the Holy Bible, the Fathers of the Church, moral and ascetical theology, and you will make a special point of reading Rodriguez.

12. You will dine not only with temperance, but also with mortification, saying the blessing before and grace after meals.

13. After dining and resting a while, you will recite Vespers and Compline.

14. Afterwards, you will commit yourself to studying matters proper to your holy ministry.

15. In the afternoon,you will visit the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle, and you will likewise visit Mary most holy at one of her images.

16. You will visit the sick in their homes or in some hospital or charitable establishment.

17. At night you will recite Matins and Lauds attentively and devoutly before some blessed image.

18. You will recite one part of the Holy Rosary with great fervor.

19. You will have light supper or collation, and this will be very good for both body and soul.

20. You will make two examens: a particular examen on some virtue at noon and night, and a general examen which will include everything that occurred during that day.

21. Finally, you will preview the meditation you are to make on the morrow, and then retire. Once you are in bed, you will think of the time for rising next day, and of the meditation you are going to make.

22. Always. You will wear clerical dress.

23. You will walk in the presence of God and make frequent prayers of aspiration. Especially, whenever the clock strikes, you will consider what Jesus suffered at that hour of His Passion, and you will make a spiritual communion.

24. You will love God with all your heart, and in proof of his love you will keep the precepts of God's holy law and the evangelical counsels.

25. You will keep the sacred vestments and vessels very clean and tidy, and the Church in good array, and and see to it that silence and recollection is kept in it.

26. You will strive with possible zeal for the salvation of souls. You will lead the way with good example, practicing the virtues of humility, chastity, meekness, patience, charity and obedience, without grumbling about the dispositions God has made through your prelate.

27. You will be solicitous and tireless in preaching, catechizing, hearing confessions and administering the other Sacraments.

28. In all your works, think on the Last Things. Thus, consider that life is passing by and death is drawing nigh. Hence, never be idle, but always usefully be employed in prayer, study, the obligations of your holy ministry and, if you have time and place for it, in some manual labor.

29. You will arrange your devotions according to the days of the week, so that you may make them with greater fervor.

Sundays will be in honor of the Blessed Trinity.

Mondays, of your guardian angel.

Tuesday, of your Patron Saint.

Wednesdays, on behalf of the poor.

Thursdays, in honor of the Blessed Sacrament.

Fridays, in memory of the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ, and in prayer for the souls in Purgatory. And you will fast.

Saturdays, in honor of Mary. And you will mortify yourself in some day.

St. Anthony Claret, The Well-Instructed Seminarian vol. II, Chapter III, 5.

Pastoral Lessons from St. John Vianney

During the Year for Priests, the Church honored St. John Mary Vianney on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his entrance to heaven. Having meditated on his life, I learned important lessons from him which, to my opinion, should once again be considered in present pastoral practice.

1. St. John Vianney's pastoral program consisted in: offering the Mass, hearing confessions, and teaching catechism. In our times when complicated pastoral programs seem to be fashionable - with the elaborate processes of planning and evaluations, the simplicity of St. John's pastoral program brings us to the essentials of pastoral ministry. In pastoral visits, the bishop is bound to be impressed with so many programs that would prove the pastoral capability of the parish priest. However, seldom does the bishop ask about how the parish priest offers the Mass, or how often does he hear confessions in a week, or if he himself teaches catechism. Blessed John Paul II wrote in Nove Millenio Ineunte: "all pastoral initiatives must be set in relation to holiness." (NMI, 30.)The primary objective of the curate is the care of souls. The objective of all pastoral programs is the holiness of the flock.

2. St. John Vianney's ministry in Ars teaches us the value of stability. He took care of one parish until the day of his death. I do not know where the bishops got the idea of changing the priests' assignments every so number of years. They say it is an exercise in detachment and so maybe it really is. But this destroys the essence of the pastorate. "I know my sheep and mine know me," said our Lord. The Lord knows each of us because he can read human hearts. But other pastors like ourselves can't read hearts. It takes time to know the flock...and by the time it happens, the term is almost over. Changing fathers every X number of years destroys the family. Maybe this works for bank managers who get transferred from one branch to another. But parish priests are not managers...they are pastors. I think the mind of the Church is reflected by the fact that bishops are not subject to a term of a determined number of years. We don't change popes after x number of years! We wait for them to die or to resign! There is value in stability because if it were not so, why would Benedictine monks regard this as a fourth vow? I do not question the transfer of priests when needed. But I question the necessity of transferring them after a set number of years.I learned from the late Cardinal Sin the valuable lesson on stability. He used to say: "You do not replace what is not broken."

3. The change in the parish of Ars was tremendous. From a spiritually indifferent community, with three taverns that provided constant entertainment, Ars became a holy parish. From afar, pilgrims came to assist at the Cure's Mass and to make their confessions to him. But more impressive than this is that the Cure became a saint because of this. His fastings and long nights in prayer transformed both the Cure himself and his parish. Although he always thought that the priesthood benefited others and not himself, it sanctified him. It made him a saint. What we need today are holy priests like St. John Vianney. Satan once appeared to him and said that if only there were 3 priests like John Vianney, his kingdom would immediately crumble!

A Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests

O Jesus, eternal Hight Priest, divine Sacrificer, Thou who in an unspeakable burst of love for men, Thy brethren, didst cause the Christian priesthood to spring forth from Thy Sacred Heart, vouchsafe to pour forth upon Thy priests continual living streams of infinite love.

Live in them, transform them into Thee; make them, by Thy grace, fit instruments of Thy mercy; do Thou act in them and through them, and grant, that they may become wholly one with Thee by their faitfhul imitation of Thy virtues; and, in Thy Name and by the strength of Thy spirit, may they do the works which Thou didst accomplish for the salvation of the world.

Divine Redeemer of souls, behold how great is the multitude of those who still sleep in the darkenss of error; reckon up the number of those unfaithful sheep who stray to the edge of the precipe; consider the throngs of the poor, the hungry, the ignorant, and the feeble who groan in their abandoned condition.

Return to us in the person of Thy priests; trul;y live again in them; act through them and pass once more through the world, teaching, forgiving, comforting, sacrificing and renewing the sacred bonds of love betwwen the Heart of God and the heart of man. Amen.

from the Roccolta, 659

The Priest and the Holy Trinity

Suscipe, Sancta Trinitas, hanc oblationem, quam tibi offerimus...

As I was offering Mass in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite this morning, my attention was taken by the words of this offertory prayer. Suddenly it dawned upon me that the words of the rites were very clear about the direction of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. The oblation is not made to the people. The oblation is offered to the true God, the Most Holy Trinity. The orientation of the prayer is so very clear both in text and in ritual. In ritual, the priest and the people face the same direction - ad Deum (to God). The prayer makes it even clearer: Suscipe, Sancta Trinitas... (Receive, O Holy Trinity, this offering which we make to Thee...)

In fact, at the conclusion of the Mass, an equally beautiful prayer is prayed: Placeat tibi, sancta Trinitas, obsequium servitutis meae: et praesta; ut sacrifium, quod oculis tuae majestatis indignus obtuli, tibi sit acceptabile, mihique et omnibus, pro quibus illus obtuli, sit , te miserante, propitiabile (May the performance of my homage be pleasing to Thee, O Holy Trinity; and grant that the sacrifice which I, though unworthy, have offered up in the sight of Thy majesty be a propitiation for me and for all those for whom it has been offered). Towards the end of the Sacrifice, the priest is reminded of his real purpose. There is no "pat in the back," no affirmations like, "Good work, Father, you got the attention of the audience." The priest has no care of what the "spectators" say for his only purpose is to be able to offer homage that is pleasing to the Holy Trinity. No human affirmation can equal the value of our Lord's words: "Well done, good and faithful servant."

The two prayers of the Mass remind the priest of his real "employer" - he is at the service of the Holy Trinity! The priest is servant of the Holy Trinity.

Consecration of Priests to Mary

Consecration of Priests to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Immaculate Mother, in this place of grace, called together by the love of your Son Jesus the Eternal High Priest, we, sons in the Son and his priests, consecrate ourselves to your maternal Heart, in order to carry out faithfully the Father's Will.

We are mindful that, without Jesus, we can do nothing good (cf. Jn 15:5) and that only through him, with him and in him,will we be instruments of salvationfor the world.

Bride of the Holy Spirit, obtain for us the inestimable gift of transformation in Christ.Through the same power of the Spirit that overshadowed you, making you the Mother of the Saviour, help us to bring Christ your Son to birth in ourselves too. May the Church be thus renewed by priests who are holy, priests transfigured by the grace of himwho makes all things new.

Mother of Mercy, it was your Son Jesus who called us to become like him: light of the world and salt of the earth(cf. Mt 5:13-14).

Help us, through your powerful intercession, never to fall short of this sublime vocation, nor to give way to our selfishness, to the allurements of the world and to the wiles of the Evil One.

Preserve us with your purity, guard us with your humility and enfold us with your maternal love that is reflected in so many souls consecrated to you, who have become for us true spiritual mothers.

Mother of the Church, we priests want to be pastors who do not feed themselves but rather give themselves to God for their brethren, finding their happiness in this. Not only with words, but with our lives, we want to repeat humbly, day after day, our "here I am".

Guided by you, we want to be Apostles of Divine Mercy, glad to celebrate every day the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar and to offer to those who request it the sacrament of Reconciliation.

Advocate and Mediatrix of grace, you who are fully immersed in the one universal mediation of Christ, invoke upon us, from God, a heart completely renewed that loves God with all its strength and serves mankind as you did.

Repeat to the Lord your efficacious word:"They have no wine" (Jn 2:3), so that the Father and the Son will send upon us a new outpouring ofthe Holy Spirit. Full of wonder and gratitude at your continuing presence in our midst, in the name of all priests I too want to cry out:"Why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Lk 1:43).

Our Mother for all time, do not tire of "visiting us", consoling us, sustaining us. Come to our aid and deliver us from every danger that threatens us. With this act of entrustment and consecration, we wish to welcome you more deeply, more radically, for ever and totally into our human and priestly lives.

Let your presence cause new blooms to burst forth in the desert of our loneliness, let it cause the sun to shine on our darkness, let it restore calm after the tempest, so that all mankind shall see the salvation of the Lord, who has the name and the face of Jesus, who is reflected in our hearts, for ever united to yours!

Amen!

Good Friday and Christ's Priesthood

The mystery of the Incarnation was necessary for God the Son to be the eternal high Priest, the one Mediator between God and man. As the priest “can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward since he himself is beset with weakness,” Christ, in assuming human nature, stands in solidarity with the sufferings of humanity. Truly, Christ is the Compassionate One and being so, he is truly human for “the essential element of our being human is being compassionate, suffering with others: this is true humanity.” (Benedict XVI, Lectio Divina with the Priests of Rome, 18 February 2010). Many people think that sinfulness is the true mark of the human person. But the Holy Father thinks otherwise: “sin is never solidarity but always tears solidarity apart, it is living for oneself instead of giving it. True humanity is real participation in the suffering of human beings. It means being a compassionate person…being at the core of human passion, really bearing with others the burden of their sufferings…”

Christ the compassionate one, entered into the mystery of human wretchedness. While keeping an intimate conversation with his Father, he bore in himself the entirety of human suffering. He suffered with those who seemed like sheep without a shepherd. Thus, “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears…” (Hebrews 5:7) A number of times he wept. At the tomb of Lazarus, he was moved inwardly by the mystery and terror of death and so he wept. Seeing the future destruction of Jerusalem on account of its disobedience, Jesus weeps for all the destructions in human history – “seeing that people destroy themselves and their cities with violence and disobedience.” Jesus weeps with loud cries. Upon the Cross he cried out: “My God, my God why have you abandoned me?” (Mk. 15:34) He cried again at the end. This cry is the cry of suffering humanity which Jesus bears and brings within the hearing of God: “I cried aloud to God, cried aloud to God that he may hear me.” “In this way (Jesus) brings about the priesthood, the function of mediator”: he bears in himself, takes on in himself, the sufferings and passion of the world. He transforms it into a cry to God and brings it before the eyes and into the hands of God. Thus, he brings the cry of suffering humanity to the moment of redemption.

In fact, the letter was very clear: “He OFFERED up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears…” In a truly priestly act, He offers to God the cries of suffering humanity. “This is the fulfillment of his priesthood, thus he brings humanity to God. In this way he becomes mediator, he becomes priest.” Jesus “offered himself and made this offering…with the very same compassion that transforms the suffering of the world into prayer and into a cry to the Father.”

It is in this light that priest, like Christ, must bring into the Mass and put into the hands of Christ all of his compassion to the sufferings of the world. The priest “must learn to accept more profoundly the sufferings of the pastoral life” for here is where mediation takes place. In his sufferings, he enters into the mystery of Christ. In his toils and labors for the good of souls, the priest is able to imitate our Lord in entering the mystery of human wretchedness. The priest carries it with him, visits those who are suffering and looks after them, takes upon himself the “passion” of his time, of his parish, of the people entrusted to his care. His compassion to the suffering of this world becomes a priestly act. He puts them all into the hands of Christ the High Priest who in turn, lifts it up to the Father in his one perfect sacrifice.

Holy Thursday and the Priesthood

It is Holy Thursday in the Year for Priests. To me, the real heart of the Year for Priests was not the Feast of St. John Vianney, nor was it the very successful 2nd National Congress for Priests. The very heart of this year for Priests is today, Holy Thursday, because it was on this day when our Lord established the Holy Eucharist and Holy Orders at the last supper. By taking bread and wine and saying: “This is my body…This is the cup of my blood,” Jesus established the Eucharist as a sacrament. When he commanded his apostles to “Do this in memory of me,” he ordained them as priests, for the only way to perpetuate the Eucharist is through the priests who would offer the Sacrifice of the new covenant in the same fashion our Lord Jesus did.

As we open the sacred Triduum of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection, my mind is raised to the Eternal Priesthood of Jesus Christ. I have said it before that it is in the light of Christ’s eternal priesthood that we should see his passion and death, lest it becomes simply a narrative of violence and suffering. The letter to the Hebrews, which explores the wealth of Christ’s priesthood, describes our Lord’s passion as his entrance into the Holy of holies in the very fashion a high priest does in the Old Testament.

The letter to the Hebrews introduced a new way of understanding the Old Testament as a book that speaks of Christ. The previous tradition had seen Christ as the fulfillment of the Davidic promise: He is the true King of Israel. This kingship of Christ we honored last Palm Sunday. However, the author of the letter to the Hebrews discovered a citation which, until then, had gone unnoticed: “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek” (Psalm 110:4). The letter to the Hebrews tells us that Christ did not only fulfill the Davidic promise of the real king of Israel and of the world but also he fulfilled the promise of the real Priest. Jesus, Son of the living God, is both king and priest. “The whole of the religious world, the whole reality of sacrifices, of the priesthood that is in search of the true priesthood, the true sacrifice, finds in Christ its key, its fulfillment.” (Benedict XVI, Lectio Divina with the priests of Rome, 18 February 2010)

Christ is Priest because he is the one Mediator between God and man. To be a mediator means to be a bridge. “This is the mission of the priest: to combine, to ling these two realities that appear to be so separate: the world of God … and our human world. The priest’s mission is to be a mediator, a bridge that connects, and thereby, to bring human beings to God, to his redemption, to his true light, to his true life.”

To be this mediator, the priest must be on God’s side. Only in Christ is this requirement fully brought about for he is God made man. He is not only on God’s side. He is God himself. The reason why he became man is so that he may become for us the true bridge, the true mediation. All other priests must have an authorization from God. They must receive the sacrament which is the divine act that makes men priests in communion with Christ. The sacrament is very important for without it, no priest could be priest. “No one can be priest by himself; God alone can attract me, can authorize me, can introduce me into participation in Christ’s mystery…This aspect of divine giving, of divine precedence, of divine action that we ourselves cannot bring about and our passivity – being chosen and taken by the hand of God – is a fundamental point…We must always return to the Sacrament, to this gift in which God gives me what I will never be able to give; participation, communion with the Divine, with the priesthood of Christ.” On account of this, the priest must first of all be a man of God, “he must know God intimately and know him in communion with Christ…Our being, our life, and our heart must be fixed in God.” The Mass, the breviary, personal prayers are elements of being with God, of being men of God.

However, if he simply remained Divine, Jesus could not be priest for a priest necessarily must be human. The priesthood of Christ is precisely in his humanity for if he were not man, what body can he offer in sacrifice? “Christ, in coming into the world said: Sacrifices and Offerings you take no delight in, but a body you have prepared for me. And so, here I am. I come to do your will.” In his Incarnation, Christ, who is of the Father, became man, and becoming man, he is priest: “The Son of God was made man precisely in order to be a priest, to be able to fulfill a priest’s mission.” Thus, the letter would say: “There is but one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ.” In his humanity, Christ is priest. Thus, at the last supper, when he established the new and eternal sacrifice, he took bread and said, “This is my body.” He took wine and said, “This is my blood.” It cannot be otherwise. It was his body that he offered. It was his blood that he shed.

The washing of his disciples’ feet is a wonderful portrayal of the true meaning of the Incarnation. The job of washing feet of guests is so demeaning a gesture that Jews would not assign this task to a Jewish helper. He would assign it to a gentile slave. Thus, when our Lord began washing feet, Simon Peter refused. He could not bear the sight of his Master and Lord humiliating himself – doing what cannot be performed by a Jew. “But if I do now wash your feet, you cannot have any part in me,” Our Lord tells him.

Such is the humiliation of the incarnation, the humiliation of the eternal priesthood of Christ. Though he was in the form of God, Jesus did not deem equality with God…Rather he emptied himself and took the form of a slave. And it was thus that he humbled himself, obediently accepting death, death on the Cross. And it is precisely in Christ’s priesthood that humanity finds its exaltation. At last, Christ enables us to offer God something that is worthy of Him. The truth about our humanity is that it cannot be understood apart from God in whose image and likeness we have been created. “In him we live, we move, and have our being,” so said St. Paul. In as much as the human being is the only creature God created for Himself, man is most truly man when he offers God worship. It is in the priesthood that the human being achieves the very purpose of his existence which is to know, love, and serve God and to find ultimate fulfillment and happiness in Him. It is in Christ’s priesthood that man is able to offer God what truly befits him. When the letter to the Hebrews said, “Sacrifice and offerings you take no delight in,” it meant that no sacrifice of the Old Testament nor of any gentile religion was truly worthy of God. That is why Christ offers his body. This offering alone is the only genuinely perfect worship in which God is most truly pleased. Christ’s sacrifice alone honors God in the fullest sense.

What great and profound mysteries Christ gave us on this night. Tonight he gave us the true priesthood. Tonight he gave us the true sacrifice. In the true priesthood, he makes us truly man: Homo religiosus, worshipping man. In the true sacrifice, he puts in our hands the one perfect offering that alone is worthy of God: the Mass. How rich have we become on account of this night! “How can I repay the Lord for his goodness to me? The cup of salvation I will raise. I will call on the Lord’s name!” What more can we do before the gifts of the Priesthood and the Eucharist? Tonight, let us raise the cup of salvation in thanksgiving. By no other means can we repay the Lord for his goodness to us!

Transfiguration and the Priesthood

Blessed Ildefono Schuster wrote on the choice of the Transfiguration as reading for the Ember Saturday of Lent: "The solitary height on which Jesus clothes himself is typical of the sacerdotal state, which demands a complete detachment from earthly things, an intense interior life, and a sublime spirit of contemplation. As in heaven, God in his majesty is seated upon the Cherubim, so, on earth, their sublime office is filled by his priests." (I. Schuster, The Sacramentary: Historical and Liturgical Notes on the Roman Missal, 77.)

On the Priesthood on Ember Saturday of Lent

On Ember Saturday of Lent, priests are ordained after a long fast and vigil. It reminds me of our Lord who selected his Apostles after a long night of prayer. Blessed Ildefonso Schuster wrote: "In olden times, the faithful spent the whole of this night in prayer, singing psalms, and listening to the reading, both in Greek and in Latin, of twelve lessons from Holy Scripture." (I. Schuster, The Sacramentary: Historical and Liturgical Notes on the Roman Missal, 73.) Imagine how long the vigil must have lasted: twelve readings read twice! Within this vigil, priests were ordained.

Thus, today, my mind is raised towards the priesthood and its great dignity. By putting the ordinations in the context of a fast and a long vigil, the Church indeed attests to the great dignity that the Lord confers upon those he has chosen to be priests.

St. John Chrysostom has this to say: "If anyone consider how great a thing it is that a man wrapped in flesh and blood approach that pure and blessed nature, then he will see plainly what great honor the grace of the Spirit has bestowed upon priests. It is by their agency that these rites pertaining to our dignity and salvation are performed. They who inhabit the earth, they who make their abode among men, are entrusted with the dispensation of the things of heaven! Priests have received a power which God has given neither to angels nor to archangels. It was said to them: Whatsoever ye shall bind upon earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose, shall be loosed. Temporal rulers have indeed the power of binding; but they can bind only the body. Priests, however, can bind with a bond which pertains to the soul itself, and transcends the very heavens. Whatever priests do here on earth, God will confirm in heaven, just as the master ratifies the decisions of his servants. Did he not give them all the powers of heaven? 'Whose sins ye shall forgive,' he says, 'they are forgiven them: whose sins ye shall retain, they are retained.' What greater power is there than this? The Father hath given all the judgment to the Son. And now I see the Son placing all this power in the hands of men. They are raised to this dignity as if they were already gathered up to heaven, elevated above human nature, and freed of all limitations.

Were a king to bestow such power upon one of his subjects that he permitted him to imprison anyone whome he wished and free him likewise at his discretion, such a man would be envied and respected by all. He, however, who has received from God a power which is as much greater than this as heaven is more precious than earth and souls than bodies, seems to some to have received so inconsiderable an honor that they imagine he is able to despise it. Away with such madness! It is madness indeed to despise so great a ministry, without which we could neither obtain our salvation nor the good things promised. inasmuch as no man can enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless he is born again of water and the Spirit, and since unless he eats the flesh of the Lord and drinks his blood he is excluded from eternal life - since, I say, all things are administered only by those holy hands, the hands of priests, how could any man without these priests either escape the fire of hell or obtain the crown which is intended for him?" (St. John Chrysostom, De Sacerdotio, 181-187.)

St. Francis on the Priesthood

St. Francis in Prayer

Zurbaran

"Kissing your feet, I implore you all my brothers, and with the utmost affection I beseech you to show the greatest possible reverence and honor to the most holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . Consider your dignity O Brothers who are priests, and be holy because He is holy . . . It is a great misfortune and a miserable fault to have Him thus near you, and to be thinking of anything else. Let the whole man be seized with dread; let the whole world tremble; let the heavens exult when Christ, the Son of the living God, is on the altar in the hands of the priest. O amazing splendor and astounding condescension! O sublime humility! O humble sublimity! The Master of the universe, God Himself and Son of God humbles Himself so far as to hide Himself for our salvation under the feeble appearance of bread! See brothers the humility of God . . . keep nothing of yourselves for yourselves, so that He may possess you entirely, who has given Himself wholly for you."

St. Francis of Assisi

(Thanks to Savior.org)

National Congress of the Clergy

I have been attending the Second National Congress of the Clergy since Monday, 25 January, 2010. It is rather a very impressive assembly of 5, 500 priests from all over the Philippines. Rev. Fr. Raniero Cantalamesa, OFM Cap., Preacher to the Papal Household, gave the conferences. The conferences were meditations on the Pentecost event as, according to Fr. Cantalamesa, the first need of the Church is the Holy Spirit, so is He also the first need of the priesthood. "The priesthood needs a perennial Pentecost." The emphasis of the talks was the relationship of the Holy Spirit and the priests. This relationship is important because it was only when the Apostles received the Holy Spirit did they emerge from the cenacle as changed men. The same Holy Spirit is the one who transforms priests and configures them to Christ, the High Priest.

Pray for priests most especially during these days so that the National Congress may truly be a spiritual event, a venue for authentic renewal of the clergy!

The Priest and the Word of God

On account of the Babylonian invasion, the temple of the Lord lay in ruins and for 14 generations, the people of Israel were in exile in Babylon. Cyrus of Persia, a benevolent king, brought that exile to an end. He ordered the return of the Israelites to their land so that they may rebuild their temple and their lives. As they were rebuilding the temple, the sacred scrolls of the law were found and so, in the 1st reading today, Ezra the priest read the law of the Lord before the assembly of men, women, and children from daybreak until midday. “Ezra read plainly from the book of the law of God, interpreting it so that all could understand what was read.” “All people were weeping as they heard the words of the law.” They were weeping because at last, after His long silence during the exile in which Israel had “no prophet, priest, nor leader”, God was once again speaking to His people. They were again hearing the word of the Lord and so they were filled with joy.

Ezra the priest presents to us one of the chief roles of the priest, that is, to read plainly from the book of God’s word and interpret it so that all could understand. In the holy Gospel, St. Luke makes reference to the “ministers of the word” who have handed down to us “the narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us.” The Holy Father, Pope Benedict himself, speaks of the important service which priests must give to the word of God: “This is your mission (as priests): to bring the Gospel to everyone so that everyone may experience the joy of Christ and that there may be joy in every city. What can be more beautiful than this? What can be greater, more exciting, than cooperating in spreading the Word of life in the world, than communicating the living water of the Holy Spirit? To proclaim and witness joy: this is the central core of your mission” (Benedict XVI, Homily at Mass for the ordination of priests, 27 April 2008). Priestly service is service to the word of God: “’To serve the Lord’ – priestly service also means to learn to know the Lord in his Word and to make it known to all those he entrusts to us.” (Homily at Chrism Mass, Holy Thursday, 20 March 2008)
The preaching of the word of God is a role that the priest must take up seriously. When he takes the book of God’s word and reads it to the sacred assembly, the priest assumes the identity of Christ who, in today’s gospel, proclaims the word and then says: “Today, this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” The priest should take joy in the fact that Christ uses him to speak to his people: “What marvels surround our work (of administering the divine sacraments) in the service of God’s word! We are instruments of the Holy Spirit; God is so humble that he uses us to spread his word. We become his voice, once we have listened carefully to the word coming from his mouth. We place his word on our lips in order to bring it to the world” (Homily at Vespers with clergy and religious in Lourdes, France, 12 September 2008). The priest must always keep in mind that the word he places on his lips is not his own but the Lord’s. His role is to interpret it so that all may understand. People do not listen to the priest because they want to hear the priest speak about himself, his ideas, his opinions. They listen to the priest because they want to know what God has to say to his people. Because of this, the priest must himself listen to God’s word, study it, pray over it. He must prepare his homily well because what he proclaims is not his word but God’s. “Even now the word of God is given to us as the soul of our apostolate, the seed of our priestly life” (Ibid.).

Chastity of the Priest

On this feast of Saint Agnes, Virgin and Martyr, our thoughts are raised to the virtue of chastity which should be possessed by priests who are charged with the offering of the Holy Sacrifice. In as much as the Liturgy is worship of the true God, the priest must not simply possess rubrical impeccability but also a chaste heart.

"The hand, says St. John Chrysostom, that touches the sacred flesh of Jesus Christ, and the tongue that is purpled with his divine blood, should be purer than the rays of the sun. In another place, he says that a priest ascending the altar should be possessed of purity and sanctity which would merit for him a place in the midst of the angels. How great, then, must be the horror of the angels when they behold a priest, who is the enemy of God, stretching forth his sacrilegious hands to touch and eat the Immaculate Lamb! 'Who,' exclaims St. Augustine, 'shall be so wicked and daring as to touch the most holy Sacrament with polluted hands!' Still more wicked is the priest that celebrates Mass with a soul defiled by mortal sin." (St. Alphonsus, Dignity and Duties of the Priest, 126.)

Admitting our transgressions, we, as priests, should make our own the words of the Psalms : "A humble and contrite heart, O God, you will not spurn!"

Purification of Priests

Who will endure the day of his coming? and who can stand when he appears? For he is like the refiner's fire, or like the fuller's lye. He will sit refining and purifying silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, refining them like gold or like silver that they may offer due sacrifice to the Lord. Then the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem will please the Lord, as in the days of old, as in years gone by. (Malachi 3:1-4)

"The Lord evidently wishes his priests to be pure and holy; that being cleansed from every defect, they may approach the altar to offer sacrifice to him...In the Book of Leviticus he says: They shall be holy to their God, and shall not profane his name; for they offer the burnt offerings of the Lord, and the bread of their God, and therefore they shall be holy. The priests of the Old Law, then, were commanded to be holy, because they offered to God incense and the loaves of the proposition, that were but a figure of the most holy Sacrament of the Altar. How much greater should the purity and sanctity of the priests of the New Law that offer to God the immaculate Lamb, his own very Son? Estius says that we do not offer calves or incense, as the priests of the Old Law did, 'but the Body of Christ who is hanging on the Cross.'" (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Dignity and Duties of the Priest, 56)