The Priesthood

The Priesthood
cinops be gone ----- Sunday, June 15, 2008
If you are a young man, a follower of Christ and still looking for a vocation, there is none higher than the priesthood. Check out the Dominicans. Pope Benedict XVI has written on the priestly vocation. As a cardinal he wrote a book, titled, Co-Workers of the Truth – Meditation for Every Day of the Year - Ignatius Press, San Francisco – 1992 What follows are excerpts from June 8,9,10,12 &14th.

“What exactly is ordination? “Are you prepared to unite yourself daily more closely with Christ, our High Priest, and to become with him a sacrificial offering for the glory of God and the salvation of mankind?” Although it is not expressly stated, the concept of the Eucharistic ministry as the center of the priest’s existence is at the root of this question…. The first and main requirement is that the priest make himself the servant of God who is greater than he is, that he learn to transcend himself and to offer the gift that no one can invent for himself and for which we are all waiting; for whether we know it or not, we all long to transcend the works of our own spirit, our hands, and to receive the festive gift. This last question: “Are you prepared … to become a sacrificial offering …?” means “Are you prepared to let yourself be drawn into the mystery and so to drink the festive wine of Jesus Christ, the wine of the Godhead…?”

In his autobiographical reflections, the French theologian Mar Oraison relates in a thought-provoking manner how he found his way from doctor to priest… For him becoming a priest did not mean bidding farewell to all he had hoped to accomplish as a doctor, but it was only in the priesthood that he saw the definitive and complete answer to death: the Resurrection. To make present Christ’s Resurrection and our own – that can be accomplished only through the power of the priestly ministry….

The great and always necessary role of the priest consists in this: that, in a world fragmented by specialization and therefore sick and suffering and disintegrated, the priest continues to be someone who is there for everyone, who holds humanity together from within…

He strengthens others in their faith, but he also always receives faith from them… Faith and prayer belong inseparably together. The time a priest spends in prayer and in hearing the word of God is never at the expense of his pastoral duties to the souls confided to his care. People can tell if the words and actions of their pastor have their origin in his prayer or only at his writing table.

The priestly ministry is a ministry of reconciliation… It is the priest’s role to make God’s gifts present to us and to associate us with these gifts in such a way that, as the Canon of Mass puts it, we ourselves become a gift together with him. It is he who is permitted to offer the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in which the things of this world become glorification of God and new life arises from this sacrifice. He is called not only to speak of God, but to speak with him for all of us and to open to us the highest of all possibilities of human speech – that our words become a conversation with the living God…”

George H. Kubeck, Duplicate and or translate into Spanish and Vietnamese.