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Pope Benedict on the Cure D’Ars on the Priesthood

In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI inaugurated a Year for Priests, under the heavenly intercession of the Cure of Ars, Saint Jean Vianney, the patron saint not only of parish priests, but of all priests.

What makes a priest, is a question asked by the great Thomist Josef Pieper in his In Search of the Sacred. We as Catholics need not search all that far for the ‘sacred’, which is not found on the tops of mountains or the depths of the sea, nor is ruins and monuments, but in humble churches dotted throughout this land, not least in tabernacles, where Christ has left us His Real Presence.

Yet He also left us Real Ministers, in the person of the priest, whether he be holy, learned, devout, faithful or, sadly, not. For a priest is signed with the sacramental ‘character’ of Christ, that sacred power, potestas, as Saint Thomas puts it, which makes him an instrument through which – or through whom – Christ works, and it is up to the priest, – through his years of training, education, formation, which should continue after seminary unto his death – to conform his whole being into a more and more ‘fitting’ instrument, to lead many to holiness and heaven. He must lay down his life for his flock in a very real sense, giving up all – marriage, family life, his own time and comfort. As Saint Peter himself said, ‘we have given everything to follow you!’, expecting, perhaps, some earthly reward.

Praise the Lord

Read the Whole Article at https://catholicinsight.com/