Ven. John Paul II: On the Priesthood

Sr. JosephMary f.t.i. — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 19:00:46 +0000

Ave Maria Meditations

On The Priesthood

After having called the Twelve to follow him, Jesus kept them at his side and lived with them, imparting his teaching of salvation to them through word and example, and finally he sent them out to all mankind … Priests are called to prolong the presence of Christ, embodying his way of life and making him visible in the midst of the flock entrusted to their care … The priest is a servant of the Church as communion because he builds up the unity of the Church community in the harmony of diverse vocations, charisms, and services … Priests are there to serve the faith, hope, and charity of the laity.

They recognize and uphold, as brothers and friends, the dignity of the laity as children of God and help them to exercise fully their specific role in the overall context of the Church’s mission … Priests have become living instruments of Christ the eternal Priest so that through the ages they can accomplish his wonderful work of reuniting the whole human race with heavenly power … The service of love is the fundamental meaning of every vocation, and it finds a specific expression in the priestly vocation. Indeed, a priest is called to live out, as radically as possible, the pastoral charity of Jesus, the love of the Good Shepherd who “lays down his life for the sheep” (Jn 10: 11) … The priest should be able to know the depths of the human heart, to perceive difficulties and problems, to make meeting and dialogue easy, to create trust and cooperation, to express serene and objective judgments … Through his daily contact with people, his sharing in their daily lives, the priest needs to develop and sharpen his human sensitivity so as to understand more clearly their needs, respond to their demands, perceive their unvoiced questions, and share the hopes and expectations, the joys and burdens which are part of life: thus he will be able to meet and enter into dialogue with all people.

All the difficult circumstances which people find in their path as Christians are fraternally lived and sincerely suffered in the priest’s heart. And he, in seeking answers for others, is constantly spurred on to find them first of all for himself … People need to come out of their anonymity and fear. They need to be known and called by name, to walk in safety along the paths of life, to be found again if they have become lost, to be loved, to receive salvation as the supreme gift of God’s love. All this is done by Jesus, the Good Shepherd – by himself and by his priests with him.

POPE JOHN PAUL II

The post Ven. John Paul II: On the Priesthood first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Holy Father entrusts Clergy to Our Lady

Sr. JosephMary f.t.i. — Thu, 20 May 2010 19:00:29 +0000

At Fatima on May 12, 2010,

the Holy Father consecrated Priests in this Year for Priests to the Blessed Mother.

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 salvation for 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 Him who 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 of the 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, forever 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, forever united to yours.

The post Holy Father entrusts Clergy to Our Lady first appeared on AirMaria.com.

year for priests | AirMaria.com

Ven. John Paul II: On the Priesthood

Holy Father entrusts Clergy to Our Lady