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' Repleti sunt omnes Spiritu Sancto.” — A cts., ii., 4.

1. Its great excellence.

The Almighty God, in the institution of this sacrament, has given to his people one of the greatest marks of his mercy. For their benefit He has given to certain men, chosen by himself, a great measure of spiritual power, and grace and wisdom to discharge properly those ecclesiastical duties which concern the whole community. This great power is given to men not for themselves alone, but for the whole Church, and those who receive it, constitute or form the visible government of the Church, and are established as a ministry for the people. Under the Vicar of Christ, the successor of St. Peter, bishops and clergy are appointed to build up the house of God, and to govern and to sanctify the faithful.

What Moses did with the Jews, leading and guiding them under the direction and inspiration of God, so the prelates of the Christian Church now do in the way of governing and instructing the body of Christ, which is the flock committed to their care. This ministry, so excellent in itself, and so necessary for the public good, has great diversity of office and duty, and, at the same time, wonderful unity of end and purpose. Through it the Church administers the sacraments, and thereby conveys to the souls of men the saving grace of Christ.

Priests offer to the Almighty God the great sacrifice of the Mass, which is substantially the same as the sacrifice of the Cross, and which continues and applies the wonderful fruits thereof. For the purposes of sacrifice, clergy are by their holy orders consecrated by God, and set apart from the rest of the faithful, as the tribe of Levi was separated for the service of God from the rest of Israel. Thus do priests, in the holy sacrifice, exercise the power which is given to them over the natural body of Christ ; and the souls of the faithful, which are the mystic body of Christ, they cleanse from their sins, and they instruct and bring up in the way of virtue.

Thus are priests, through this sacrament, made the fathers of the people. They are the shepherds of the flock. They hold the keys of the Church. They are the faithful dispensers in God’s house of his heavenly treasures. Through their hands grace and mercy flow, and God, through them, confers his gifts and spreads abroad his benedictions. The divine power is strikingly manifested everywhere, but it is especially so in this sacrament, where God has exhibited, under visible signs and forms, the greatest mercy, and the kindest consideration for his people. Behold in all this the excellence of this heavenly sacrament.


2. On the dispositions required .

The conditions and dispositions required for the worthy reception of this holy sacrament are two-fold — the first remote, the second proximate.
The remote consist, in the first place, in having a divine vocation to the priesthood. This involves in it, and requires, purity of intention and innocence of life; or, at least, an experience for a considerable time of habits of virtue.
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The cleric should consider well, that he should have full knowledge and instruction on the nature of the order for which he is preparing. He should know whether or not that particular order is a sacrament. He should understand the full extent of the spiritual power conferred by it, the special dispositions which it demands, and the virtues which it requires the recipient to practice.

The proximate dispositions are those which immediately precede or accompany the ordination. The careful study of the rite of the Pontifical concerning the order to be received is enjoined, not only that the ceremony may be known, but also that the cleric who receives the order, may profit by the instructions which the bishop gives him. The cleric who receives the order, should also make beforehand the confession of his sins to ensure his being in the state of grace, for it should be his special care that the holy sacrament of orders, which is given to him for the public good, should be properly received, and, as it can be conferred upon him but once, that it should be then conferred upon him well.

To make a retreat for some days before the reception of this sacrament is also judged necessary, that the cleric, separated from the world and from all intercourse with men, may beg of God the knowledge of his holy will, and the grace to fulfill it; and that he may also learn to love the virtues of the priesthood, and to acquire the ecclesiastical spirit.

This was the manner in which God acted with His great servant Abraham, when He was bringing him to the observance of His holy will, and to all perfection. He made him leave his country, and his father’s house, and go into the desert. When Moses wanted to know the will of God he left the company of men, and sought silence and solitude in which he could commune with God, and our Divine Saviour, before he undertook his public mission, made a retreat for forty days in the desert to show priests how to prepare themselves by retreat to acquire the virtues, and to discharge the arduous duties of the priesthood.

The cleric, during his ordination, which is the most solemn moment of his life, should reflect on the perpetual sacrifice and consecration which he makes of himself to the Almighty God. At that holy and awful time he should offer the thoughts, words, and deeds of his whole life to the love and service of God. In the case of sub-deaconship he contracts before God and the Church the vow, or, at least, the obligation of chastity, and resolves to regulate his passions by their subjugation, and to die to all the disordered pleasures of the senses. He also makes the sacrifice of his will, for in future the will of his bishop or superior is a rule and law to him. Priests, before the ceremony of their ordination, is concluded, make to the bishop a solemn promise of this ecclesiastical obedience.

The cleric, at his ordination, renounces the world and the things of the world. He gives up friends, and country, and home. From the day that God has anointed him as His priest, and poured out His spirit upon him, God is to him as His eternal portion, and he is dearer to Him than his people, or his father’s house.

Ask yourselves what were your dispositions at your ordination. Were you then in the state of grace and friendship with God ? Did you enter into his house to become his enemy? Did you come into the Church “ sicut fur et latro” to betray its most sacred interests, and to violate its most holy obligations? Since your ordination where has been your purity, your obedience, your perfect life? Have you been the man of sin seated in the house of God, or have you been the faithful dispenser of God’s mysteries, and the minister of all goodness and blessing to his people.

Let us pray to God in the words of the Pontifical, "Abundet in nobis totius forma virtutis, auctoritas modesta, pudor constans, innocentiae puritas, et spirituals observantia disciplinea.”

Source: Ecclesiastical meditations suitable for priests on the mission and students in diocesan seminaries, 1866