7 June 2013
World
Day of Prayer
for
the Sanctification of Priests
My dearest friends and brothers in the
priesthood,
On
the occasion of the coming solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, 7 June
2013, on which we celebrate the World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of
Priests, I cordially greet each and every one of you, and thank the Lord for
the wonderful gift of the priesthood and for your fidelity to the love of
Christ.
The
invitation of the Lord to “remain in his love” (cf. Jn. 15:9) is valid for all
the baptised, but on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, it resounds with a
new power in us, his priests. As the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI reminded us
at the opening of the Year for Priests, quoting the Holy Curé of Ars, “the
priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus” (cf. Homily at the celebration of
Vespers of the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, 19 June 2009). We
must never forget that from this heart sprang the gift of the priestly
ministry.
We
know from experience that “to remain in his love” pushes us forcefully towards
holiness. This holiness, as we know well, is not based in doing extraordinary
actions, but in allowing Christ to act in us and in making his attitudes, his
thoughts and his behaviour our own. The extent of holiness derives from the
extent of Christ’s presence in us, insofar as we model the whole of our life on
him, by the strength of the Holy Spirit.
We
priests have been consecrated and sent to make present the salvific mission of
the incarnate Divine Son. Our function is indispensable for the Church and for
the world and demands from us complete fidelity to Christ and constant union
with Him. Thus, by humble service, we are guides who lead to holiness the faithful
entrusted to our ministry. In this way, we reflect in our life the desire
expressed by Jesus himself in his priestly prayer after the institution of the
Eucharist: “I am praying for them; I am not praying for the world but for those
whom you have given me, for they are yours… I do not pray that you should take
them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one…
sanctify them in the truth… for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also
may be consecrated in truth” (Jn. 17:9,15,17,19).
In the Year of Faith
Such
considerations assume a special importance in relation to the celebration of
the Year of Faith – announced by the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI in the Motu
Proprio Porta Fidei (11 October 2011)
– which began on 11 October 2012, on the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of
the Second Vatican Council, and which will end on the solemnity of Our Lord
Jesus Christ, Universal King, on 24 November next. The Church with her pastors,
must be on a journey, to lead people out of the “desert” towards communion with
the Son of God, who is the Life of the world (cf. Jn. 6:33).
In
this perspective, the Congregation for the Clergy addresses this letter to all
the priests of the world, to help each one to renew his commitment to live this
event of grace to which we are called, and in a particular way to be leaders
and animators eager for a rediscovery of the faith in its entirety and with all
its attraction, and therefore motivated to believe that the new evangelisation
is directed towards the genuine transmission of the Christian faith.
In
the Apostolic Letter Porta Fidei, the
Pope interprets the sentiments of priests in many countries: “In the past it
was possible to recognise a unitary cultural matrix, broadly accepted in its
appeal to the content of the faith and the values inspired by it, today this no
longer seems to be the case in large swathes of society, because of a profound
crisis of faith that has affected many people” (no. 2).
The
celebration of the Year of Faith presents itself as an opportunity for the new
evangelisation, to overcome the temptation to discouragement, and to let our
own efforts be directed more and more under the influence and the guidance of
the present Successor of Peter. To have faith means principally to be certain
that Christ, conquering death in his flesh, has also made it possible for those
who believe in Him to share this destiny of glory, and to satisfy the yearning
for a perfect and eternal life and joy, which is in the heart of everyone. For
this, “the Resurrection of Christ is our greatest certainty; he is our most
precious treasure! How can we not share this treasure, this certainty with
others? It is not only for us, it is to be passed on, to be shared with others.
Our testimony is precisely this” (Pope
Francis, General Audience, 3
April 2013).
As
priests we must prepare ourselves the lead the other members of the faithful to
a maturity of faith. We know that we are the first ones who have to open our
hearts more fully. We remember the words of the Master of the last day of the
Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem
Transmitting the Faith
Christ
has entrusted to his apostles and to the Church the mission of preaching the
Good News to all people. St. Paul St. Paul
To
collaborate with Christ in the transmission of the faith is the task of every
Christian, in the characteristic organic cooperation between the ordained
faithful and the lay faithful in the Holy
Church
A
second element of the missionary character of the transmission of the faith is
found in the joyful welcome of the words of Christ, the truths that he teaches
us, the content of Revelation. In that sense, a fundamental instrument will be
the ordered and organic exposition of Catholic doctrine, anchored in the Word
of God and in the eternal and living Tradition of the Church.
In
particular, we must commit ourselves to live the Year of Faith and to make it a
providential occasion to understand that the texts of the Second Vatican
Council, which are the heritage of the Council Fathers, according to the words
of blessed John Paul II, “have lost nothing of their value or brilliance. They
need to be read correctly, to be widely known and taken to heart as important
and normative texts of the Magisterium, within the Church’s Tradition… I feel
more than ever in duty bound to point to the Council as, the great grace bestowed on the Church in the twentieth century:
there we find a sure compass by which to take our bearings in the century now
beginning” ” (John Paul II, Ap.
Let. Novo millennio ineunte, 6
January 2001, 57: AAS 93 [2001], 308, no. 5).
The Content of the
Faith
The
Catechism of the Catholic Church –
called for by the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops of 1985 as an instrument of
service to catechesis and brought about through the collaboration of the whole
Episcopate – illustrates to the faithful the strength and the beauty of the
faith.
The
Catechism is an authentic fruit of
the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, which makes the pastoral ministry
easier: attractive, incisive, deep, solid homilies; catechetical courses and
courses of theological formation for adults; the preparation of catechists, the
formation of different vocations in the Church, particularly in the Seminaries.
The
Note with pastoral recommendations for
the Year of Faith (6 January 2012), offers a full list of initiatives for
living this privileged time of grace in full unity with the Holy Father and the
Episcopal College: pilgrimages for the faithful to the See of Peter, to the
Holy Land, to Marian shrines, the next World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro this
coming July; symposia, conferences and gatherings, also on an international
level, and in particular those dedicated to the rediscovery of the teachings of
the Second Vatican Council; the organisation of groups of the faithful for
reading and the communal in-depth study of the Catechism with a renewed commitment to spreading its teaching.
In
the current relativist climate it seems appropriate to stress how important is
the knowledge of the content of authentic Catholic doctrine, inseparable as it
is from the encounter with appealing testimonies of faith. The Acts of the
Apostles recounts that the first disciples in Jerusalem
In
this sense the Year of Faith is a particularly favourable occasion for a more
attentive reception of the homilies, the catechesis, the allocutions and the
other statements of the Holy Father. For many of the faithful, to have
available the homilies and discourses from the audiences will be a great help
for passing on the faith to others.
This
concerns the truth by which we live, as St. Augustine said when, in a homily on
the redditio symboli, he describes
the handing over of the Creed: “You
therefore have received and returned it, but in your minds and in your hearts
you must keep it ever present, you must repeat it in your beds, think of it
again in the squares and not forget it during meals: and also when your body
sleeps, your hearts must be watchful” (Augustine
of Hippo, Discourse 215, on the Redditio
Symboli).
In
Porta Fidei there is a path to help
understand more deeply the content of the faith and the act by which we freely
entrust ourselves to God: the act with which we believe and the content to
which we give our assent are signposted in a deeply united way (cf. n. 10).
To grow in Faith
The
Year of Faith represents therefore, an invitation to conversion to Jesus, the
only Saviour of the World, to grow in the faith as a theological virtue. In the
prologue to the first volume of Jesus of
Nazareth, the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI wrote on the negative consequences
of presenting Jesus as a figure from the past about whom little is certain: “Such
a situation is difficult for the faith, because it makes its authentic point of
reference uncertain: the intimate friendship with Jesus, on which everything
depends, threatens to fumble in the emptiness” (p. 8).
It
is worth meditating more on these words “the
intimate friendship with Jesus, on which everything depends”. It concerns
the personal encounter with Christ, an encounter of each one of us, and of each
one of our brothers and sisters in the faith, whom we serve in our ministry.
To
encounter Jesus, like the first disciples – Andrew, Peter, John – like the
Samaritan woman or like Nicodemus; to welcome him into our own house like
Martha and Mary; to listen to him reading the Gospel again and again; by the
grace of the Holy Spirit, this is the sure path to growth in the faith. As the
Servant of God Paul VI wrote: “The faith is the way by which eternal truth
enters into the soul” (Insegnamenti,
IV, p. 919).
Jesus
invites us to feel that we are children and friends of God: “I have called you
friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You
did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and
bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the
Father in my name, he may give it to you” (Jn. 15:15-16).
Means to grow in faith
– The Eucharist
Jesus
invites us to ask with full confidence, to pray with the words “Our Father”. He
proposes to everyone, in the Sermon on the Mount, a goal which to human eyes
seems like madness: “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father
is perfect” (Mt 5:48). In order to exercise a good pedagogy of holiness, capable of adapting itself to the circumstances
and the pace of the individual person, we must be friends of God, and men of
prayer.
In
prayer we learn to carry the Cross, that Cross open to the whole world for its
salvation which, as the Lord revealed to Ananias, would accompany the mission
of the newly converted Saul: “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to
carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will
show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name” (Acts 9:15-16). Also
to the faithful of Galatia, St. Paul presents this synthesis of his life “I
have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who
lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of
God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:19-20).
In
the Eucharist the mystery of the sacrifice of the Cross is made present. The
liturgical celebration of the Holy Mass is an encounter with Jesus, who offers
himself as a victim for us and transforms us in Him. “By its nature, the
liturgy can be pedagogically effective in helping the faithful to enter more
deeply into the mystery being celebrated. That is why, in the Church’s most
ancient tradition, the process of Christian formation always had an
experiential character. While not neglecting a systematic understanding of the
content of the faith, it centred on a vital and convincing encounter with
Christ, as proclaimed by authentic witnesses. It is first and foremost the
witness who introduces others to the mysteries” (Benedict XVI, Ap. Exhort. Sacramentum Caritatis, 22-II-2007, no. 64). It should not be
surprising therefore, that in the Note
with pastoral recommendations for the Year of Faith, it is suggested that
the celebration of the faith in the liturgy be intensified, and in particular in
the Eucharist, where the faith of the Church is proclaimed, celebrated and
reinforced (cf. no. IV, 2). If the Eucharistic liturgy is celebrated with great
faith and devotion, the fruits are certain.
The Sacrament of Mercy
that brings forgiveness
If
the Eucharist is the Sacrament that builds up the image of the Son of God in
us, Reconciliation is that which makes us experience the power of the divine
mercy, which liberates the soul from sin, and enables it to sense the beauty of
the return to God, the true Father loved by every one of his children. For this
the sacred minister is the first person who must be convinced that “only by
behaving as children of God, without despairing at our shortcomings, at our
sins, only by feeling loved by him will our life be new, enlivened by serenity
and joy. God is our strength! God is our hope!” (Pope Francis, General
Audience, 10 April 2013).
The
priest must himself be a sacrament of this merciful presence in the world:
“Jesus has no house, because his house is the people, it is we who are his
dwelling place, his mission is to open God’s doors to all, to be the presence
of God’s love” (Idem, General Audience, 27 March 2013). We
cannot therefore bury this marvellous supernatural gift, nor distribute it
without having the same sentiments as He who loved sinners, all the way to the
Cross. In this sacrament, the Father gives us a unique opportunity to be, not
only spiritually, but also in ourselves and with our own humanity, that
welcoming hand which, like the Good Samaritan, pours oil which gives relief to
the wounds of the soul (Lk. 10:34). We hear, as our own, these words of the
Pontiff; “A Christian who withdraws into himself, who hides everything that the
Lord has given him, is a Christian who... is not a Christian! He is a Christian
who does not thank God for everything God has given him! This tells us that the
expectation of the Lord’s return is the time of action — we are in the time of
action — the time in which we should bring God’s gifts to fruition, not for
ourselves but for him, for the Church, for others. The time to seek to increase
goodness in the world always… Dear brothers and sisters, may looking at the
Last Judgement never frighten us: rather, may it impel us to live the present
better. God offers us this time with mercy and patience so that we may learn
every day to recognise him in the poor and in the lowly. Let us strive for
goodness and be watchful in prayer and in love. May the Lord, at the end of our
life and at the end of history, be able to recognise us as good and faithful
servants” (Idem, General Audience, 24 April 2013).
The
sacrament of Reconciliation is therefore also the sacrament of joy: “While he
was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and
embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned
against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it
on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted
calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead, and
is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to make merry” (Lk.
15:11-24). Every time we go to Confession, we find the joy of being with God,
because we have experienced his mercy perhaps many times, when we manifest to
the Lord our shortcomings due to tepidity and mediocrity. Thus our faith is
strengthened as sinners who love Jesus, and we know we are loved by him: “When
someone is summoned by the judge or is involved in legal proceedings, the first
thing he does is to seek a lawyer to defend him. We have One who always defends
us, who defends us from the snares of devil, who defends us from ourselves and
from our sins! Dear brothers and sisters, we have this Advocate; let us not be
afraid to turn to him to ask forgiveness, to ask for a blessing, to ask for
mercy! He always pardons us, he is our Advocate: he always defends us! Don’t
forget this!” (Idem, General Audience, 17 April 2013).
In
Eucharistic adoration, we can say to Christ, present in the Sacred Host, with
St. Thomas Aquinas:
Plagas sicut Thomas
non intúeor
Deum tamen meum Te
confiteor
Fac me tibi semper
magis crédere
In Te spem habére, Te
dilígere.
Also
with the apostle Thomas, we can repeat with our priestly heart, when Jesus is
in our hands: Dominus meus et Deus meus!
“Blessed is she who believed that there would
be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” (Lk. 1:45). With
these words Elizabeth
Mauro Cardinal Piacenza
Prefect
X Celso Morga Iruzubieta
Titular Archbishop of Alba marittima
Secretary
Some suggestions are
proposed below for a time of prayer for the Bishop and the presbyterate, to
organise as a Vigil of preparation for the Day or during the Day itself.
Eucharistic Adoration
Entrance hymn
Liturgical greeting by
the Bishop. The prayer below follows.
Let us pray.
Father, holy and merciful, you made the
apostles holy in the confession of your name, comfort us with the grace of your
Spirit, and grant to us your servants to remain firm in integrity of faith, and
to shine out with wisdom and holiness of life in the steadfast service of your
Church. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Gospel (a choice may be made from the
following passages): Mk. 16:15-20; Lk. 5:1-11; Lk. 10:1-9, Jn. 10:11-16; Jn.
15:9-17; Jn. 21:1-14
Homily
Renewal of priestly
promises as at the Chrism Mass
***
At this point the
Blessed Sacrament is exposed (Adoro te devote)
Silent adoration.
During the personal prayer there could be meditations on some passages, such as
the following.
Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree “Presbyterorum Ordinis” on the life of
priests, no. 3
The priests within the
people of God
Priests, who are taken from among men and
ordained for men in the things that belong to God in order to offer gifts and
sacrifices for sins, nevertheless live on earth with other men as brothers. The
Lord Jesus, the Son of God, a Man sent by the Father to men, dwelt among us and
willed to become like his brethren in all things except sin. The holy apostles
imitated him. Blessed Paul, the doctor of the Gentiles, “set apart for the
Gospel of God” (Rm. 1:1) declares that he became all things to all men that he
might save all. Priests of the New Testament, by their vocation and ordination,
are in a certain sense set apart in the bosom of the People of God. However,
they are not to be separated from the People of God or from any person; but
they are to be totally dedicated to the work for which the Lord has chosen
them. They cannot be ministers of Christ unless they be witnesses and
dispensers of a life other than earthly life. But they cannot be of service to
men if they remain strangers to the life and conditions of men. Their ministry
itself, by a special title, forbids that they be conformed to this world; yet
at the same time it requires that they live in this world among men. They are
to live as good shepherds that know their sheep, and they are to seek to lead
those who are not of this sheepfold that they, too, may hear the voice of
Christ, so that there might be one fold and one shepherd. To achieve this aim,
certain virtues, which in human affairs are deservedly esteemed, contribute a
great deal: such as goodness of heart, sincerity, strength and constancy of
mind, zealous pursuit of justice, affability, and others. The Apostle Paul
commends them saying: “Whatever things are true, whatever honourable, whatever
just, whatever holy, whatever loving, whatever of good repute, if there be any
virtue, if anything is worthy of praise, think upon these things” (Phil. 4:8).
Pope Francis, Homily of the Chrism Mass (28 March
2013)
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This morning I have the joy of
celebrating my first Chrism Mass as the Bishop of Rome. I greet all of you with
affection, especially you, dear priests, who, like myself, today recall the day
of your ordination.
The readings and the Psalm of our Mass
speak of God’s “anointed ones”: the suffering Servant of Isaiah, King David and
Jesus our Lord. All three have this in common: the anointing that they receive
is meant in turn to anoint God’s faithful people, whose servants they are; they
are anointed for the poor, for prisoners, for the oppressed… A fine image of
this “being for” others can be found in the Psalm 133: “It is like the precious
oil upon the head, running down upon the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running
down upon the collar of his robe” (v. 2). The image of spreading oil, flowing
down from the beard of Aaron upon the collar of his sacred robe, is an image of
the priestly anointing which, through Christ, the Anointed One, reaches the
ends of the earth, represented by the robe.
The sacred robes of the High Priest
are rich in symbolism. One such symbol is that the names of the children of
Israel were engraved on the onyx stones mounted on the shoulder-pieces of the
ephod, the ancestor of our present-day chasuble: six on the stone of the right
shoulder-piece and six on that of the left (cf. Ex. 28:6-14). The names of the
twelve tribes of Israel
From the beauty of all these
liturgical things, which is not so much about trappings and fine fabrics than
about the glory of our God resplendent in his people, alive and strengthened,
we turn now to a consideration of activity, action. The precious oil which
anoints the head of Aaron does more than simply lend fragrance to his person;
it overflows down to “the edges”. The Lord will say this clearly: his anointing
is meant for the poor, prisoners and the sick, for those who are sorrowing and
alone. My dear brothers, the ointment is not intended just to make us fragrant,
much less to be kept in a jar, for then it would become rancid … and the heart
bitter.
A good priest can be recognised by
the way his people are anointed: this is a clear proof. When our people are
anointed with the oil of gladness, it is obvious: for example, when they leave
Mass looking as if they have heard good news. Our people like to hear the
Gospel preached with “unction”, they like it when the Gospel we preach touches
their daily lives, when it runs down like the oil of Aaron to the edges of
reality, when it brings light to moments of extreme darkness, to the
“outskirts” where people of faith are most exposed to the onslaught of those
who want to tear down their faith. People thank us because they feel that we
have prayed over the realities of their everyday lives, their troubles, their
joys, their burdens and their hopes. And when they feel that the fragrance of the
Anointed One, of Christ, has come to them through us, they feel encouraged to
entrust to us everything they want to bring before the Lord: “Pray for me,
Father, because I have this problem”, “Bless me Father”, “Pray for me” – these
words are the sign that the anointing has flowed down to the edges of the robe,
for it has turned into a prayer of supplication, the supplication of the People
of God. When we have this relationship with God and with his people, and grace
passes through us, then we are priests, mediators between God and men. What I
want to emphasise is that we need constantly to stir up God’s grace and
perceive in every request, even those requests that are inconvenient and at
times purely material or downright banal – but only apparently so – the desire
of our people to be anointed with fragrant oil, since they know that we have
it. To perceive and to sense, even as the Lord sensed the hope-filled anguish
of the woman suffering from haemorrhages when she touched the hem of his
garment. At that moment, Jesus, surrounded by people on every side, embodies
all the beauty of Aaron vested in priestly raiment, with the oil running down
upon his robes. It is a hidden beauty, one which shines forth only for those
faith-filled eyes of the woman troubled with an issue of blood. But not even
the disciples – future priests – see or understand: on the “existential
outskirts”, they see only what is on the surface: the crowd pressing in on
Jesus from all sides (cf. Lk. 8:42). The Lord, on the other hand, feels the
power of the divine anointing which runs down to the edge of his cloak.
We need to “go out”, then, in order
to experience our own anointing, its power and its redemptive efficacy: to the
“outskirts” where there is suffering, bloodshed, blindness that longs for
sight, and prisoners in thrall to many evil masters. It is not in
soul-searching or constant introspection that we encounter the Lord: self-help
courses can be useful in life, but to live our priestly life going from one
course to another, from one method to another, leads us to become pelagians and
to minimise the power of grace, which comes alive and flourishes to the extent
that we, in faith, go out and give ourselves and the Gospel to others, giving
what little ointment we have to those who have nothing, nothing at all.
The priest who seldom goes out of
himself, who anoints little – I won’t say “not at all” because, thank God, the
people take the oil from us anyway – misses out on the best of our people, on
what can stir the depths of his priestly heart. Those who do not go out of
themselves, instead of being mediators, gradually become intermediaries,
managers. We know the difference: the intermediary, the manager, “has already
received his reward”, and since he doesn’t put his own skin and his own heart
on the line, he never hears a warm, heartfelt word of thanks. This is precisely
the reason for the dissatisfaction of some, who end up sad – sad priests - in
some sense becoming collectors of antiques or novelties, instead of being
shepherds living with “the odour of the sheep”. This I ask you: be shepherds,
with the “odour of the sheep”, make it real, as shepherds among your flock,
fishers of men. True enough, the so-called crisis of priestly identity
threatens us all and adds to the broader cultural crisis; but if we can resist
its onslaught, we will be able to put out in the name of the Lord and cast our
nets. It is not a bad thing that reality itself forces us to “put out into the
deep”, where what we are by grace is clearly seen as pure grace, out into the
deep of the contemporary world, where the only thing that counts is “unction” –
not function – and the nets which overflow with fish are those cast solely in
the name of the One in whom we have put our trust: Jesus.
Dear lay faithful, be close to your
priests with affection and with your prayers, that they may always be shepherds
according to God’s heart.
Dear
priests, may God the Father renew in us the Spirit of holiness with whom we
have been anointed. May he renew his Spirit in our hearts, that this anointing
may spread to everyone, even to those “outskirts” where our faithful people
most look for it and most appreciate it. May our people sense that we are the
Lord’s disciples; may they feel that their names are written upon our priestly vestments
and that we seek no other identity; and may they receive through our words and
deeds the oil of gladness which Jesus, the Anointed One, came to bring us.
Amen.
Benedict XVI, Homily at the conclusion of the Year
for Priests (11 June 2010)
Dear Brothers in the Priestly Ministry,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Year for Priests which we have
celebrated on the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the death of the holy
Curè of Ars, the model of priestly ministry in our world, is now coming to an
end. We have let the Curé of Ars guide us to a renewed appreciation of the
grandeur and beauty of the priestly ministry. The priest is not a mere
office-holder, like those which every society needs in order to carry out
certain functions. Instead, he does something which no human being can do of
his own power: in Christ’s name he speaks the words which absolve us of our
sins and in this way he changes, starting with God, our entire life. Over the
offerings of bread and wine he speaks Christ’s words of thanksgiving, which are
words of transubstantiation – words which make Christ himself present, the
Risen One, his Body and Blood – words which thus transform the elements of the
world, which open the world to God and unite it to him. The priesthood, then,
is not simply “office” but sacrament: God makes use of us poor men in order to
be, through us, present to all men and women, and to act on their behalf. This
audacity of God who entrusts himself to human beings – who, conscious of our
weaknesses, nonetheless considers men capable of acting and being present in
his stead – this audacity of God is the true grandeur concealed in the word
“priesthood”. That God thinks that we are capable of this; that in this way he
calls men to his service and thus from within binds himself to them: this is
what we wanted to reflect upon and appreciate anew over the course of the past
year. We wanted to reawaken our joy at how close God is to us, and our
gratitude for the fact that he entrusts himself to our infirmities; that he
guides and sustains us daily. In this way we also wanted to demonstrate once
again to young people that this vocation, this fellowship of service for God
and with God, does exist – and that God is indeed waiting for us to say “yes”.
Together with the whole Church we wanted to make clear once again that we have
to ask God for this vocation. We have to beg for workers for God’s harvest, and
this petition to God is, at the same time, his own way of knocking on the
hearts of young people who consider themselves able to do what God considers
them able to do. It was to be expected that this new radiance of the priesthood
would not be pleasing to the “enemy”; he would have rather preferred to see it
disappear, so that God would ultimately be driven out of the world. And so it
happened that, in this very year of joy for the sacrament of the priesthood,
the sins of priests came to light – particularly the abuse of the little ones,
in which the priesthood, whose task is to manifest God’s concern for our good,
turns into its very opposite. We too insistently beg forgiveness from God and
from the persons involved, while promising to do everything possible to ensure
that such abuse will never occur again; and that in admitting men to priestly
ministry and in their formation we will do everything we can to weigh the
authenticity of their vocation and make every effort to accompany priests along
their journey, so that the Lord will protect them and watch over them in
troubled situations and amid life’s dangers. Had the Year for Priests been a
glorification of our individual human performance, it would have been ruined by
these events. But for us what happened was precisely the opposite: we grew in
gratitude for God’s gift, a gift concealed in “earthen vessels” which ever
anew, even amid human weakness, makes his love concretely present in this
world. So let us look upon all that happened as a summons to purification, as a
task which we bring to the future and which makes us acknowledge and love all
the more the great gift we have received from God. In this way, his gift
becomes a commitment to respond to God’s courage and humility by our own
courage and our own humility. The word of God, which we have sung in the
Entrance Antiphon of the liturgy, can speak to us, at this hour, of what it
means to become and to be priests: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me;
for I am gentle and humble of heart” (Mt. 11:29).
We
are celebrating the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and in the liturgy we
peer, as it were, into the heart of Jesus opened in death by the spear of the
Roman soldier. Jesus’ heart was indeed opened for us and before us – and thus
God’s own heart was opened. The liturgy interprets for us the language of
Jesus’ heart, which tells us above all that God is the shepherd of mankind, and
so it reveals to us Jesus’ priesthood, which is rooted deep within his heart;
so too it shows us the perennial foundation and the effective criterion of all
priestly ministry, which must always be anchored in the heart of Jesus and
lived out from that starting-point. Today I would like to meditate especially
on those texts with which the Church in prayer responds to the word of God
presented in the readings. In those chants, word (Wort) and response (Antwort)
interpenetrate. On the one hand, the chants are themselves drawn from the word
of God, yet on the other, they are already our human response to that word, a
response in which the word itself is communicated and enters into our lives.
The most important of those texts in today’s liturgy is Psalm 23(22) – “The
Lord is my shepherd” – in which Israel
Let us return to our Psalm. There we
read: “He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk
through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and
your staff – they comfort me” (Ps. 23[22]:3ff.). The shepherd points out the
right path to those entrusted to him. He goes before them and leads them. Let
us put it differently: the Lord shows us the right way to be human. He teaches
us the art of being a person. What must I do in order not to fall, not to squander
my life in meaninglessness? This is precisely the question which every man and
woman must ask and one which remains valid at every moment of one’s life. How
much darkness surrounds this question in our own day! We are constantly
reminded of the words of Jesus, who felt compassion for the crowds because they
were like a flock without a shepherd. Lord, have mercy on us too! Show us the
way! From the Gospel we know this much: he is himself the way. Living with
Christ, following him – this means finding the right way, so that our lives can
be meaningful and so that one day we might say: “Yes, it was good to have
lived”. The people of Israel
Then there is the phrase about the
“darkest valley” through which the Lord leads us. Our path as individuals will
one day lead us into the valley of the shadow of death, where no one can
accompany us. Yet he will be there. Christ himself descended into the dark
night of death. Even there he will not abandon us. Even there he will lead us.
“If I sink to the nether world, you are present there”, says Psalm 139(138).
Truly you are there, even in the throes of death, and hence our Responsorial
Psalm can say: even there, in the darkest valley, I fear no evil. When speaking
of the darkest valley, we can also think of the dark valleys of temptation, discouragement
and trial through which everyone has to pass. Even in these dark valleys of
life he is there. Lord, in the darkness of temptation, at the hour of dusk when
all light seems to have died away, show me that you are there. Help us priests,
so that we can remain beside the persons entrusted to us in these dark nights.
So that we can show them your own light.
“Your rod and your staff – they
comfort me”: the shepherd needs the rod as protection against savage beasts
ready to pounce on the flock; against robbers looking for prey. Along with the
rod there is the staff which gives support and helps to make difficult
crossings. Both of these are likewise part of the Church’s ministry, of the
priest’s ministry. The Church too must use the shepherd’s rod, the rod with
which he protects the faith against those who falsify it, against currents
which lead the flock astray. The use of the rod can actually be a service of
love. Today we can see that it has nothing to do with love when conduct
unworthy of the priestly life is tolerated. Nor does it have to do with love if
heresy is allowed to spread and the faith twisted and chipped away, as if it
were something that we ourselves had invented. As if it were no longer God’s
gift, the precious pearl which we cannot let be taken from us. Even so, the rod
must always become once again the shepherd’s staff – a staff which helps men
and women to tread difficult paths and to follow the Lord.
At
the end of the Psalm we read of the table which is set, the oil which anoints
the head, the cup which overflows, and dwelling in the house of the Lord. In
the Psalm this is an expression first and foremost of the prospect of the
festal joy of being in God’s presence in the temple, of being his guest, whom
he himself serves, of dwelling with him. For us, who pray this Psalm with
Christ and his Body which is the Church, this prospect of hope takes on even
greater breadth and depth. We see in these words a kind of prophetic
foreshadowing of the mystery of the Eucharist, in which God himself makes us
his guests and offers himself to us as food – as that bread and fine wine which
alone can definitively sate man’s hunger and thirst. How can we not rejoice
that one day we will be guests at the very table of God and live in his
dwelling-place? How can we not rejoice at the fact that he has commanded us:
“Do this in memory of me”? How can we not rejoice that he has enabled us to set
God’s table for men and women, to give them his Body and his Blood, to offer
them the precious gift of his very presence. Truly we can pray together, with
all our heart, the words of the Psalm: “Goodness and mercy shall follow me all
the days of my life” (Ps. 23[22]:6).
Finally,
let us take a brief look at the two communion antiphons which the Church offers
us in her liturgy today. First there are the words with which Saint John
The liturgy of the Solemnity of the
Sacred Heart of Jesus also permits another phrase, similar to this, to be used
as the communion antiphon. It is taken from the Gospel of John: Whoever is
thirsty, let him come to me. And let the one who believes in me drink. As the
Scripture has said: “Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water” (cf.
Jn. 7:37ff.) In faith we drink, so to speak, of the living water of God’s Word.
In this way the believer himself becomes a wellspring which gives living water
to the parched earth of history. We see this in the saints. We see this in
Mary, that great woman of faith and love who has become in every generation a
wellspring of faith, love and life. Every Christian and every priest should
become, starting from Christ, a wellspring which gives life to others. We ought
to be offering life-giving water to a parched and thirst world. Lord, we thank
you because for our sake you opened your heart; because in your death and in
your resurrection you became the source of life. Give us life, make us live
from you as our source, and grant that we too may be sources, wellsprings
capable of bestowing the water of life in our time. We thank you for the grace
of the priestly ministry. Lord bless us, and bless all those who in our time
are thirsty and continue to seek. Amen.
***
The rites of
reposition of the Blessed Sacrament may be preceded by General Intercessions
C: Dear brothers, united in prayer like the
Apostles in the upper room, let us ask God the Father, through his Son Jesus
Christ, to hear our petitions for ourselves, for the holy Church and for the
whole world. Therefore, let us say in faith: Father make us true and zealous witnesses of your love.
1. For
our Holy Father Francis, our Bishop N.
and all pastors of the Church: that they may be true and wise guides and, being
strong in faith, may give an heroic and faithful testimony to the Word of
salvation entrusted to them by the Apostles. Let us pray to the Lord.
2. For
all priests: that they may not be discouraged by the difficulties of their
ministry, but rather spurred on by them to look constantly to Him who made the
Cross the instrument of love and divine mercy, which transforms the heart of
every person. Let us pray to the Lord.
3. For
all those who are called by Jesus to follow him to continue his work of
salvation in the world: that, being strong against the seductions of the evil
one, they may respond with generosity to the call of the divine Master
learning, like the Apostles on Mount Tabor, to experience the beauty of being
with him. Let us pray to the Lord.
4. For
Rectors of Seminaries and for those who are called to form candidates for the
sacred ministry: that they may always carry out their task with paternal love,
encouraging and helping every young person to grow in wisdom, stature and
grace, bringing to fruit the talents that God has placed in their hearts for
the good of all. Let us pray to the Lord.
5. For
all the Christian faithful: that, in a spirit of communion and collaboration
with all the ministers, they may be able to see in them the mysterious presence
of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who continually calls his flock to himself, and
that they may sustain them constantly by their prayers, so that they may be
each day an example and sure guide to living authentically the faith in the Son
of God. Let us pray to the Lord.
6. The
sacred sacramental anointing makes one a priest for ever: that all deceased
priests may continue, together with Christ seated at the right of the Father
and in union with his sacred Sacrifice, to offer themselves in love, and thus
prepare a place by Him in glory for all who listen to his voice. Let us pray to
the Lord.
C: Father, your work of salvation, carried out
by your Son, through the Holy Spirit, reflects the mystery of the Trinity,
which is a mystery of love. Hear our prayers and help us to remain always
faithful to you. We ask you this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
The Tantum ergo follows, after which, before the usual acclamations, the schema of the Litany
of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Priest and Victim (taken from the book Gift and Mystery of Blessed John Paul
II) may be used.
Kyrie, eleison Kyrie, eleison
Christe, eleison Christe, eleison
Kyrie, eleison Kyrie, eleison
Christe, audi nos Christe, audi nos
Christe, exaudi nos Christe, exaudi nos
Pater de cælis, Deus, miserere nobis
Fili, Redemptor mundi, Deus, miserere nobis
Spiritus Sancte, Deus, miserere nobis
Sancta Trinitas, unus Deus, miserere nobis
Iesu, Sacerdos et Victima, miserere nobis
Iesu, Sacerdos in æternum
secundum ordinem
Melchisedech, miserere nobis
Iesu, Sacerdos quem misit
Deus
evangelizare pauperibus, miserere nobis
Iesu, Sacerdos qui in
novissima cena
formam sacrificii perennis instituisti, miserere
nobis
Iesu, Sacerdos semper
vivens
ad interpellandum pro nobis, miserere nobis
Iesu, Pontifex quem
Pater
unxit Spiritu Sancto et virtute, miserere nobis
Iesu, Pontifex ex
hominibus assumpte, miserere nobis
Iesu, Pontifex pro
hominibus constitute, miserere nobis
Iesu, Pontifex
confessionis nostræ, miserere nobis
Iesu, Pontifex
amplioris præ Moysi gloriæ, miserere nobis
Iesu, Pontifex tabernaculi
veri, miserere nobis
Iesu, Pontifex
futurorum bonorum, miserere nobis
Iesu, Pontifex
sancte,
innocens et
impollute, miserere nobis
Iesu, Pontifex fidelis et misericors, miserere nobis
Iesu, Pontifex Dei
et animarum zelo succense, miserere nobis
Iesu, Pontifex in
æternum perfecte, miserere nobis
Iesu, Pontifex qui
per proprium
sanguinem cælos penetrasti, miserere nobis
Iesu, Pontifex qui
nobis
viam novam initiasti, miserere nobis
Iesu, Pontifex qui
dilexisti nos
et lavisti nos a peccatis in sanguine tuo, miserere
nobis
Iesu, Pontifex qui
tradidisti temetipsum
Deo oblationem et hostiam, miserere nobis
Iesu, Hostia Dei et
hominum, miserere nobis
Iesu, Hostia sancta
et immaculata, miserere nobis
Iesu, Hostia
placabilis, miserere nobis
Iesu, Hostia
pacifica, miserere nobis
Iesu, Hostia propitiationis et laudis, miserere nobis
Iesu, Hostia reconciliationis et pacis, miserere nobis
Iesu, Hostia in qua
habemus
fiduciam et accessum ad Deum, miserere nobis
Iesu, Hostia vivens
in sæcula sæculorum, miserere nobis
Propitius esto! parce nobis, Iesu
Propitius esto! exaudi nos, Iesu
A temerario in clerum
ingressu, libera nos, Iesu
A peccato sacrilegii, libera
nos, Iesu
A spiritu incontinentiæ, libera nos, Iesu
A turpi quæstu, libera nos, Iesu
Ab omni simoniæ labe, libera nos, Iesu
Ab indigna opum
ecclesiasticarum
dispensatione, libera nos, Iesu
Ab amore mundi eiusque vanitatum, libera nos, Iesu
Ab indigna Mysteriorum
tuorum
celebratione, libera nos, Iesu
Per æternum sacerdotium tuum, libera nos, Iesu
Per sanctam unctionem, qua a Deo Patre
in
sacerdotem constitutus es, libera nos, Iesu
Per sacerdotalem
spiritum tuum, libera nos, Iesu
Per ministerium
illud, quo Patrem tuum
super terram clarificasti, libera nos, Iesu
Per cruentam tui
ipsius immolationem
semel in cruce factam, libera
nos, Iesu
Per illud idem
sacrificium
in altari quotidie renovatum, libera nos, Iesu
Per divinam illam
potestatem, quam
in sacerdotibus tuis invisibiliter exerces, libera
nos, Iesu
Ut universum ordinem
sacerdotalem
in sancta religione conservare digneris, Te
rogamus, audi nos
Ut pastores secundum
cor tuum
populo tuo providere digneris, Te rogamus, audi nos
Ut illos spiritus
sacerdotii tui
implere digneris, Te rogamus, audi nos
Ut labia sacerdotum
scientiam custodiant, Te rogamus, audi nos
Ut in messem tuam
operarios
fideles mittere
digneris, Te rogamus, audi nos
Ut fideles mysteriorum tuorum
dispensatores
multiplicare digneris, Te rogamus, audi nos
Ut eis perseverantem in tua voluntate
famulatum
tribuere digneris, Te rogamus, audi nos
Ut eis in ministerio
mansuetudinem,
in actione sollertiam et
in oratione constantiam concedere digneris, Te
rogamus, audi nos
Ut per eos
sanctissimi Sacramenti
cultum ubique
promovere digneris, Te rogamus, audi nos
Ut qui tibi bene
ministraverunt,
in gaudium tuum suscipere digneris, Te
rogamus, audi nos
Agnus Dei, qui tollis
peccata mundi, parce nobis, Domine
Agnus Dei, qui tollis
peccata mundi, exaudi nos, Domine
Agnus Dei, qui tollis
peccata mundi, miserere nobis, Domine
Iesu, Sacerdos, audi nos
Iesu, Sacerdos, exaudi nos
Oremus
Ecclesiæ
tuæ, Deus, sanctificator et custos, suscita in ea per Spiritum tuum idoneos et
fideles sanctorum mysteriorum dispensatores, ut eorum ministerio et exemplo
christiana plebs in viam salutis te protegente dirigatur. Per Christum Dominum
nostrum. Amen.
Deus, qui
ministrantibus et ieiunantibus discipulis segregari iussisti Saulum et Barnabam
in opus ad quod assumpseras eos, adesto nunc Ecclesiæ tuæ oranti, et tu, qui
omnium corda nosti, ostende quos elegeris in ministerium. Per Christum Dominum
nostrum. Amen.
Benediction, the acclamations
and reposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Chant: Laudate Dominum.
At the end of the
celebration, the Act
of Entrustment and Consecration of Priests to the Most Blessed Virgin, following the formula used by Benedict XVI
at the conclusion of the Year for Priests, may be used.
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,
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!
Final Chant: Salve Regina
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