On the Catholic Priesthood

Don Bosco

"Only two means are left to save Her (the Church) amidst so much confusion: Frequent Communion and Devotion to Mary most holy, making use of every means and doing our best to practice them and having them practiced everywhere and by everybody."

"When speaking of public scandals:
Don’t be surprised at anything. People and waywardness go hand in hand. The Church has nothing to fear because even if all were to conspire to overthrow Her, the Holy Spirit would still uphold Her."

Posted at 10:46PM Jan 31, 2019 by VP in Quotes  |  Comments [0]

Our Priesthood

The Catholic Church rejoices and glories greatly in the charitable zeal of her clergy in preaching the gospel 
of Christian peace, in bringing salvation and civilization even to barbarous nations, among whom by their labors,
often consecrated by the shedding of their blood, the kingdom of Christ is being daily propagated and our holy
faith is winning new laurels and still greater lustre. And if your charitable offices, beloved sons, meet with envy, 
abuse, calumny, as only too frequently is the case, do not therefore give way to sadness, "be not weary in well-doing" 
(II Thess., Ill, 13). Keep before your eyes that host of great men who, following the example of the Apostles,
in the midst of bitterest contumely borne for the name of Christ, "went rejoicing, blessing when they were cursed."
 For we are the sons and the brothers of the Saints whose names are resplendent in the book of life, whose praises 
the Church proclaims: "Let us not stain our glory."* 

Once the spirit of sacerdotal grace is restored and increased among all orders of the clergy, Our designs,
 under the Divine guidance, for the restoration of all else, will acquire far more efficacy. 
Source: Our Priesthood, by Bruneau, Joseph (1866-1933)

Posted at 09:58AM Jan 25, 2019 by VP in Books  |  Comments [0]

The Altar and God: The Dignity of the Priesthood

The Christian priesthood differs essentially from the priesthood of the Old Law and from the ministry of the various sects.
The priesthood in the Old Law descended from father to son. It was an inheritance in the tribe of Levi and in the family
of Aaron. Therefore "there were many  priests," as St Paul says, "because by reason of death they were not suffered to
continue." 

The Protestant sects reject all idea of a true priesthood. To them the minister is the hired servant of the congregation.
He may have great talents and be able to command a large salary, but to his people he is merely an employee, the same as 
the artist that plays the organ or the sexton that rings the bell. 

The Catholic Church teaches that with the Old Law the Levitical priesthood passed away. The priest and the sacrifice go
together, and when the altar ceased to smoke in the temple court, the sons of Aaron ceased to be priests. Their priesthood 
was the type and figure of the priesthood of our Lord, even as their sacrifices were the type and figure of the sacrifice 
that was consummated on Calvary. Now, of Christ, God had said with an oath: "The Lord hath sworn, and He will not repent:
Thou art a priest forever." Our Lord therefore has an everlasting priesthood, and, if an everlasting priesthood, he must
have an eternal sacrifice. That sacrifice is not the offering of the blood of goats or oxen in an earthly temple and on 
an earthly altar, but it is the offering of His own blood in a tabernacle not made by hands, in the holy of holies of 
heaven itself, and on the sublime altar that ever stands in the sight of the majesty of God. 

In the New Testament, then, there is only one priest and only one sacrifice. That priest is Jesus Christ Himself, and 
that sacrifice is the Sacrifice of the Cross, which was offered once to exhaust the sins of many. But it is also written
in the Scripture that Christ is a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. Now, Melchizedek was king of 
Salem and priest of the Most High God who met Abraham and blessed him and offered up a sacrifice in bread and wine.
The bloody sacrifices of the priesthood of Levi, the offerings of sheep and goats and oxen, typified the bloody death 
of Christ upon the Cross; the unbloody sacrifice of Melchizedek typifies the clean oblation concerning
which the Prophet Malachi also spoke: "From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my Name is great
among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice and there is offered to My name a clean oblation, saith the Lord
of Hosts." 

For it is necessary that there should be sacrifice everywhere. Men are commanded by God to worship Him. The essential
elements of worship are prayer and sacrifice. We do not worship God by prayer alone, but by prayer and sacrifice. Man
also is composed of body and soul, not of soul alone, but of body and soul. Therefore his worship must be a sensible 
and external worship as well as an interior and spiritual worship. He must not only pray in his heart, but he must 
express his prayer in words. His sacrifice must not only be carried by the hands of angels to the altar on high, but
it must lie slain before the eyes of men on earth.

Now, the one sacrifice of the Christian dispensation is the death of Christ, and Christ is seated at the right hand of 
God's majesty, offering that one sacrifice for sin. What human eye is there so keen as to pierce the un-created glory,
and behold the print of the nails; what human hand so hardy as to dare to reach out and touch that wounded side? 

It is evident therefore that the death of Christ must be shown to men if we are to have a sacrifice at all. And we read
in the first Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians: "I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, 
that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread, and, giving thanks, brake, and said: “Take ye,
and eat: this is My body, which shall be delivered for you: this do ye for the commemoration of Me.” In like manner,
also, the chalice, after He had supped, saying: 'This chalice is the New Testament in My blood: this do ye, as often as 
ye shall drink, for the commemoration of Me. For as often as ye shall eat this bread, and drink the chalice, ye shall shew 
the death of the Lord, until He come." 

This, then, is the divine plan by which the death of Christ, the Sacrifice of the Cross, is to be perpetuated among men. 
The Apostles were then and there constituted priests after the order of Melchizedek. They were then and there constituted
priests, not like the priests of Aaron, each offering a sacrifice of his own. They were constituted priests by being
indued with the priesthood of Jesus Christ, doing what He did, changing bread into the body that was broken for us and 
changing wine into the blood that was poured out for us, and thus really offering in an unbloody manner the same sacrifice
that He offered on the cross. 

Since our Lord ordered that the sacrifice of His death should be shown to men until His second coming, it was necessary 
that the Apostles should hand on the power that was given them. By the Sacrament of Holy Orders they provided not only 
for the due government of the Church, but for the perpetuation of the sacrifice. To some they give the power of the
priesthood in its fullness, that is, with the faculty of creating other priests, and these we call bishops; to others they
give the power of the priesthood without this privilege, and these we call simply priests. But in priest and in bishop the
power of sacrifice is the same, and it is the same Mass that is offered up by the humble missionary in the log hut under
the great pines of some northern wilderness as is offered up under the great dome of St. Peter's when the Pope himself 
stands at the altar and the silver trumpets sound. 

This, then, is the secret of the dignity of the Christian priest. 'He is indued with the priesthood of Jesus Christ Himself
and holy men have not hesitated to say: "Sacerdos alter Christus" — The priest is another Christ. 

His dignity does not arise from the nobility of his birth, or from the fame of his name. His dignity does not arise from 
his natural talents or from his acquired learning. His dignity does not arise from the church in which he ministers or the
congregation that he serves. His dignity does not arise from his eloquence, though it is his duty to preach the word of
God in season and out of season. His dignity does not arise from the power to regenerate the children of God in the waters
of baptism, for even the heathen may use that power. His dignity does not arise from the jurisdiction he exercises in the
tribunal of penance over the mystical body of Christ, for a priest may go through life without hearing a single confession.
His dignity does not arise from the long history and splendid services of the order into which he ha« been incorporated. 
It is true he may look back for twenty centuries and behold the Christian priesthood march like the sons of Levi at the 
head of the Christian host carrying the Ark  of the Covenant. He may see their fame recorded in every department of human 
endeavor. In search of souls they have explored the trackless forests and navigated unknown rivers. To carry the word they
have gone to the ends of the earth and opened up new nations to science. They have descended into the dark places of great
cities to bind the wounds of the broken in spirit, to lift up the fallen, to visit them that are sick and in prison, to 
feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to harbor the harbor-less, and to bury the dead.
 They have braved the plague in tropic jungles or in stricken towns, not with parade and ostentation, but in the pursuit 
of their ordinary duty, and when the time came for them they lay down in simple dignity and died amidst their flock.
They have been the pioneers of education, the foster fathers of art, and there is no department of human learning or 
human science in which their names do not shine. They have been great writers, great musicians,
great orators, aye, even great statesmen, and some have not borne the sword in vain. Yes, it is an ancient and honorable
company into which a young priest is admitted at his ordination, and henceforth he walks forever a brother 
of the mighty dead. Yet it is not from all or from any of these things comes the dignity with which he is crowned; it
is not because of these things the people reverence him and his father's sons bow down before him. No, his dignity has
only one source, and only one justification, namely, the stupendous change that was wrought in him by the imposition 
of hands and the grace of ordination, when he put on the eternal priesthood of Jesus Christ and stood before the world
another Christ: "Sacerdos alter Christus" — The priest is another Christ. 

This is why he did not presume to take this honor to himself, but waited to be called by God, even as Aaron was. This 
is why he comes to you now, not the nominee of a congregation, but sent even as the Apostles were. This is why there
is between you and him this altar rail, the symbol of the everlasting barrier raised between him and the world. That
is why he is clothed in the Mass vestments, the white garment that Christ wore, and the heavy cross that He carried
to Calvary. That is why he stands before you as a leader of his people, and he only turns his face to you now and
again, as a leader might turn to urge you on. That is why he prays in an unknown tongue to manifest to you that he,
not you, is the sacrificer, and that he, not you, has power to immolate the mystic victim. That is why, with raised 
hands and uplifted voice, he now prepares to enter the sanctuary alone. The solemn hymn of thanksgiving is, as it were,
the preface for the great mystery of the holy of hollies. He forgets the earth, he boldly faces the gates of heaven, 
he passes through the serried ranks of angels and archangels, of cherubim and seraphim, of principalities and powers,
of thrones and dominations, and as the thunder of the heavenly hymn, "Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of hosts," moves the
lintels of the temple doors, he approaches the altar of the Lamb,and he alone standing begins the solemn words of 
consecration. Behold, it is now no longer a man that officiates at that altar. He takes the bread and he takes the wine.
Over them he speaks the words of Jesus Christ: "This is My body — this is My blood." The man has passed away. It is the
High Priest Himself that speaks. "This is My body — this is My blood." "Sacerdos alter Christus" — The priest is another
Christ. 

What mortal man could be worthy of so great dignity? It is one of the mysteries of God's dealings with mankind that
He did not commit this sublime office to His holy angels, instead of to sinful men. Yet, as Christ did not choose to
redeem mankind in the nature of an angel, but in the nature of a man, so He has ordained that His priests should be men,
not angels. Christ became a man that we might have a high priest who can have compassion on our infirmities, tempted 
in all things even as we are tempted, yet without sin. So He makes men His priests that, surrounded as they are with
weakness, they may have compassion on them that are ignorant and do err. 

It is a wonderful dignity, and would that we were worthy of it. It is something far above the strength of human nature,
and therefore only to be borne by the abounding and super abounding grace of God. Catholics know this, and therefore,
while to-day is a day of rejoicing, it is a day of earnest prayer and holy fear. Pour out your supplication for this
Levite who, in the gladness of his youth, for the first time goes unto the altar of God. Pray that God's angels may
camp around him even as they camped around the Prophet Eliseus, to protect him against the assaults of the enemy. Pray
that his sacrifice may be acceptable like the sacrifice of Abel the Just, and ratified like the sacrifice of Abraham,
our Patriarch, and holy like the sacrifice of the High Priest, Melchizedek. Pray that his ministry may bloom with
virtue like the rod of Aaron, and that his long service may be found without flaw like the service of Samuel.
May his heart be pure even as the heart of John, who was worthy to lie upon the bosom of the Lord, and may he
show himself, like Paul, a minister of God in much patience, aye, even if necessary in tribulation, in necessities,
in distresses, in stripes, in prisons, in sedition, May the grace which he has received not in vain manifest itself in
labor, in fastings, in watchings, in chastity, in knowledge, in long suffering, in sweetness, in the Holy Ghost,
in charity unfeigned, in the word of truth, in the power of God, by the armor of justice on the right hand and on the
left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet known; 
as dying, and behold we live; as chastised, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as needy, yet enriching
many; as having nothing and possessing all. 

Source: Altar and Priest, 1913 Peter Christopher Yorke

Posted at 01:01AM Jan 19, 2019 by VP in Books  |  Comments [0]

Never Lawful

The confessor is forbidden under grave penalties ever to betray by word, sign, or in any other way, what he has heard in Sacramental confession. The obligation of the seal of confession differs from all other secrets, in that it is never lawful under any circumstances to make known the least thing that has been manifested by a penitent in confession. If questioned about confessional matter, even in a court of justice, the priest must always answer that he knows nothing about it, as with perfect truth he may do, for what he knows as a confessor he knows as the Vicegerent of God, not as man.

Posted at 12:00AM Jan 18, 2019 by VP in Articles  |  Comments [0]

January: Holy Childhood

Prayer to the Holy Infant for priests

Jesus, Divine Infant, I bless and thank Your most loving Heart for the institution of the priesthood. Priests are sent by You, as You were sent by the Father. To them You entrusted the treasures of Your doctrine, of Your Law, of Your Grace, and souls themselves.

Grant me the grace to love them, to listen to them, and to let myself be guided by them in Your ways. Jesus, send good laborers into Your harvest. May priests be the salt that purifies and preserves; may they be the light of the world; may they be the city placed on the mountain. May they all be formed after Your own Heart. And in heaven may they be surrounded by a joyous throng of those they shepherded on earth. Amen.

Glory Be three times.
Infant Jesus, make me love You more and more!

Source: Cure d'Ars Prayer Group

Posted at 01:01AM Jan 17, 2019 by VP in Prayers  |  Comments [0]

Force of Prayer

We do not deny the force of prayer. We feel it. We acknowledge it. We grant it in all its fullness. But we have no time.

What! Christian soul; you have no time to pray!

You are naked, and blind, and deaf and weak, and have no time to pray! Your soul is naked of God's grace;
it is blind to His light; it is deaf to His whispering; it is weak and faint, and yet you have no time to pray.
If your body were naked, would you have no time, think you, to seek wherewith to clothe it?
 If your eyes were blind and could be restored to sight for the asking, would you have no time to ask?
 If your ears were deaf and could receive their hearing by knocking, would you have no time to knock?
Take care soul, take care. Search your heart more searchingly, and you will find that it is not time that you have not;
 it is the inclination, and you have not the inclination because you have not the faith. You have time for your friends,
 but because God is not on your list of friends, you have no time for Him. You have had no introduction.
 You have time for your farms, for your oxen, for your household, for your secular business, nay, even for every
 frivolous amusement; but for God's farm you have "no time;" for God's household you have "no time;"
for the business of God's eternity you have "no time."
Where is your faith, O naked one! O blind one! 0 deaf one! O preoccupied one! This man has had time to make
 himself a judge, a lawyer, a merchant, a millionaire, and has not had time to be a Christian. All have time to take
 their meals. However busy, however pressed, they find time to get them at stated hours, or failing that, they find
 some other time for them. Their meals never fail them. But for their spiritual meals, no time; for their soul's
 nourishment, no time. One-third of life is spent in sleep, and yet we have no time for spiritual repose.
 In a word, for temporal things we have time and to spare, for spiritual things no time.

Beware; this no time drags thousands down to a miserable eternity. Correct this irregularity; in God's August Name
 correct it. If you have every day a certain time set apart for sleep, for meals, for business, for amusements,
have also some time at least for prayer. I am not now speaking of morning and evening prayer. A man need
only be half a Christian to say them. I speak of a time wherein to place yourself daily at God's feet, as did the
 Magdalene, there to talk with Him, to open your hearts to Him; to tell Him your wants, your hopes, your aspirations
 For some short time at least be Mary, if all the rest of the time you are obliged to be Martha. "I have lifted up
my eyes to the mountain whence help shall come. He will not sleep, nor does He sleep. Who keepeth Israel."
 And I do not want you to speak in set phrase from a book. Speak from your heart as to a loving father.
 He bids you call Him Father. Open everything, conceal nothing; He knows everything beforehand; He waits
 only for the asking; and when you ask, ask in groans and sighs. Take a lesson from the worldling.
For what does the worldling groan? For that he is miserable after so many vain efforts to be happy.
Why does he sigh? Because the pleasures and riches and honors of this life fly before him like a butterfly,
no matter how fast he runs.

During your short time of prayer (the shorter the more fervid,) do you likewise sigh and mourn as the worlding
does, but let it be for spiritual things, not temporal ones. Groan for the miserable failure through human weakness
 of your efforts for spiritual advancement. Sigh for the riches and honors of Heaven; groan and sigh thus, and He
Who has said, "Ask and you shall receive," will not desert you. It is want of faith that leaves prayer so distasteful
 to us. If we could catch but one glimpse of Heaven—if we could hear but one phrase of Heaven's melody—
if we could feel but one thrill of Heaven's joys, we should need no urging; our prayer would be spontaneous, gushing,
overflowing. Gold represents everything which men call precious, i.e everything “buyable”, and what is there which
cannot be bought?

It is said that even the most high toned and honorable men have their price. It may indeed take more to buy men of
coarser mold, but still they are to be bought. Now if you had promised you a mountain of this gold, which buys
everything, even to high-toned and honorable men; if this mountain was promised for the asking—or even if it were
promised you for the fetching—or even if it might be yours by force of arms, would you have no time to ask? Would
you have no time to beat up recruits, to buy ammunition, and go to the fighting? And yet what comparison between
 this mountain of gold and the Heaven of eternity? Your mountain of gold, however high, however wide, however deep,
 with the heavens and the earth, will pass away; but the Heaven of eternity never. And yet you would prefer the gold,
 O ye of little faith, and have no time to obtain Heaven by the asking. You have not the intelligence of the tramp,
 low down in the social scale as he is. Give him three pence and he will be with you on the morrow, or if he be not,
 his friend will for him; and when all his friends are exhausted he will have put up a mark on your gate posts to guide
 others to your bounty. You have not the instinct of the robin. Give it a crumb or a small worm and it will be with you
 on the morrow and on the morrow's morrow to the end of time. Your Heavenly Father offers you treasures untold
for the asking. He asks you to ask, and you have no time, O ye of little faith! The tramp will walk miles to gain
your three pence for the asking; the robin will wait at your window by the hour for your crumb; but you have no time.
You have not the intelligence of the tramp, Christian soul. You have not the instinct of the robin, O ye of little faith.
 The wisdom of the nations is crystallized in the proverb, "Where there is the will there is the way." And there is
 the will, Christian soul, where there is faith.

Source: Norbertine Fathers, 1896 (page 93, Annals of St. Joseph, Volumes 8-10)

Posted at 01:01AM Jan 16, 2019 by VP in Articles  |  Comments [0]

Priest and People

Posted at 01:01AM Jan 15, 2019 by VP in Articles  |  Comments [0]

St. Joseph and the Priest

Priests are advised to recite, before the celebration of Mass, some certain prayers in honor of St. Joseph. Pope Pius IX., who declared St. Joseph the Patron of the universal Church, has indulgenced them. Who does not know those beautiful anthems: O felicem virum beatum Joseph and the Virginum custos et pater, Sancte Joseph?

It is prompted by these beautiful anthems that I propose a brief sketch of a fruitful meditation.

First. St. Joseph, by divine election became the foster-father of the Infant Jesus as he was also the spouse of the Blessed Mother of God. All honors due him on account of the exalted position thus held and the privileges he enjoyed, come vividly before our mind, when we kneel before the Blessed Sacrament. Pondering over them we feel inclined to asked our Lord in the Sacred Host to bless us for the sake of St. Joseph; and assurance comes to us that our humble petition will be listened to. Let us remind Jesus of what the loving foster father has done for Him in his mortal life, and feel assured that St. Joseph's advocacy will be most powerful.

Second. Who has such weighty reasons to put his trust in the prayers and intercession of St. Joseph as has the Catholic priest? What St. Joseph was to our Lord in the days of His infancy on earth, that the priest is to Jesus when ministering to Him at the altar. Helpless and in the state of utmost destitution, our Sacramental Lord craves for that kind care and solicitude which he once enjoyed at the hands of His beloved foster-father. Often the priest is in no better way of finding shelter for Jesus in the Holy Sacrament than St. Joseph was, when, after a vain search for a suitable dwelling, he, at last, betook himself to a lonely stable as a resting place for the Savior to be born. And is the priest not glad, when, to such a humble abode as he may have found, the faithful come, like the shepherds of Bethlehem and the three wise men, to adore the Lord of hosts seated on a throne void of all ornaments? St. Joseph's joy is his.

Did you ever witness the care and labor of the priest in his endeavors for the construction and embellishment of a church which was to serve as the abode of the Sacramental Lord, without being reminded of St. Joseph, who labored in the sweat of his brow for the beloved Infant? Deep is the grief and unspeakable the agony, which the faithful priest experiences, when profanation threatens the Sacred Host, or when the Holy Sacrament is snatched away by an unworthy communicant and forced into the dark dungeon of a sinner's heart, or even of a God-forsaken sacrilegious priest. Then it is, that you behold St. Joseph portrayed in his anguish of heart in his flight into Egypt, to save his beloved child from the ruthless hand of Herod and his cruel soldiers. St. Joseph was the first guardian of Jesus, but we priests have received from God the guardianship of Jesus living, but persecuted and treated contumeliously in the Blessed Sacrament.

Third. Compare, if you will, the privileges St. Joseph enjoyed, with those of the priest. Is it not as if you saw the Holy Patriarch appearing amongst us, his countenance beaming with delight as he embraced the Infant with tender affection, clasping Him to his bosom, carrying Him on his arms, leading Him by the hand, working ceaselessly for his honored charge, listening to His sweet voice? Is it not so to you, I say, when you behold the priest ministering to the King of hosts in the Holy Sacrament? O priest of God, do not envy St. Joseph, but rather congratulate yourself and break forth into transports of joy, recalling the words of the holy canticle: Quia fecit mihi magna qui potens est. For, you also touch the body of the Lord; you carry Him on your heart when on your way to the sick to administer to them Holy Communion and Viaticum; you more than press Him to your bosom at Holy Communion. He obeys you with the same willingness and promptness as He did His foster-father. And were you only to listen to his holy inspirations, when communing with Him, joy and consolation would be yours, as was the sweet portion of St. Joseph in his intercourse with the Divine Infant.

Fourth. Is the office of the priest in its holiest moments not similar to that of St. Joseph? and do not the highest privileges of both blend, indeed, in a most perfect manner? If so, what is the natural inference to be drawn from such a comparison? Oh! the minister of the sanctuary should strive to imitate the most conspicuous virtues of that exalted saint. By so doing, he would ennoble his life and draw from his holy functions perennial streams of genuine happiness, and blessings abundant for himself and for those confided to his care.

But what are the most conspicuous characteristics of St. Joseph, worthy to be acquired by every priest? None other than his astounding humility and his spotless virginity. Though of little account in the estimation of the world, they were the foundation of his exalted dignity. His royal crown could not have been devoid of these two ornaments. The humility of St. Joseph and his marvelous chastity were, so to speak, the frame-work on which was to rest his dignity as the father of Jesus and the spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. So with the priest. Humility and chastity are the jewels of the Catholic priesthood. No priest will be honored by God, nor will he have honor before men, if he doesn't appear wrapped in the royal mantle of humanity and chastity. O priest of God, take St. Joseph for your model and flee pride and sensuality; if you do not, the royal robe of your priesthood will fall into shreds, the crown of your dignity will lose its luster and the scepter of your authority will be broken in your hands. Contemplate, admirare, imitare, Quando litas precans ad altare, Fungens Sancti Joseph opere, et beare.

Source: Annals of St. Joseph, Norbertine Fathers, 1896 Vol. 8-10

Posted at 12:24PM Jan 14, 2019 by VP in Articles  |  Comments [0]

Prayer

"It is not necessary", said the Curé, "to talk so much in order to pray well. We know that our good God is there in the tabernacle; we open our heart to Him; we are happy at being in His presence: that is the best sort of Prayer."

Source: The Dublin Review: A Quarterly and Critical Journal. p354

Posted at 10:01AM Jan 11, 2019 by VP in Articles  |  Comments [0]