Holy Thursday letter to Priests

John Paul II

(12 April 1990)

1. Veni, Creator Spiritus!

In these words the Church prayed on the day of our priestly ordination. Today, as the Sacred Triduum of the year of the Lord 1990 begins, we remember together the day of our ordination. We go to the Upper Room with Christ and the Apostles to celebrate the Eucharist in cena Domini and to rediscover that root which joins the Eucharist of Christ’s Passover to our sacramental priesthood, inherited from the Apostles: "When Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world so the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end" (Jn 13:1).

Veni, Creator Spiritus!

On this Holy Thursday as we go back to the origin of the priesthood of the new and everlasting Covenant, each one of us recalls, at the same time, that day which is inscribed in the history of our personal lives as the beginning of our sacramental priesthood, which is service in Christ’s Church. The voice of the Church, which invokes the Holy Spirit on that day so decisive for each of us, alludes to Christ’s promise in the Upper Room: "I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth" (Jn 14:16-17). The Counsellor—the Paraclete! The Church is certain of his saving sad sanctifying presence. It is he "who gives life" (Jn 6:63). The Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father..., whom I shall send to you from the Father" (cf. Jn 15:26), is he who has generated in us that new life which is called and which really is the ministerial priesthood of Christ, He says: "He will take what is mine and declare it to you" (Jn 16:14). It happened exactly like this. The Spirit of truth, the Paraclete, "has taken" from that one priesthood which is in Christ and has revealed it to us as the path of our vocation and our life, It was on that day that each of its saw himself, in the priesthood of Christ in the Upper Room, as a minister of the Eucharist and, seeing ourselves in this way, we began to walk along this path. It was on this day that each of us, by virtue of the sacrament, saw this priesthood as accomplished in himself, as imprinted on his soul in the form of an indelible seal: "Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek" (Heb 5:6).

2. All this is set before our eyes each year on the anniversary of our ordination, but it is also put forward again on Holy Thursday. For today. in the morning liturgy of the Chrism Mass, we gather, within our various priestly communities, about our Bishops, in order to rekindle the sacramental grace of Orders. We gather together so as to renew, before the priestly people of the New Covenant, those promises which since the day of our ordination have been the basis of the special character of our ministry in the Church.

And, as we renew those promises, we invoke the Spirit of truth—the Paraclete, that he may grant saving and sanctifying power to the words which the Church utters in her hymn of invocation:

"Mentes tuorum visita,

imple superna gratia.

quae tu creasti pectora".

Yes! Today let us open our hearts—these hearts which he has created anew by his divine power. He has created them anew with the grace of the priestly vocation, and within them he is continually at work. Every day he creates: he creates in us, ever anew, that reality which constitutes the essence of our priesthood—which confers upon each of us full identity and authenticity in priestly service—which enables us to "go and bear fruit" and which ensures that this fruit abides" (cf. Jn 15:16).

It is he, the Spirit of the Father and the Son, who enables us to rediscover ever more deeply the mystery of that friendship to which Christ the Lord called us in the Upper Room: ‘No longer do I call you servants..., but I have called you friends" (In 15:15). For while the servant does not know what his master is doing, the friend is familiar with the secrets of his Lord. The servant can only be obliged to work. The friend rejoices that he has been chosen by the one who has entrusted himself to him—and to whom he too entrusts himself, entrusts himself totally.

So today let us pray to the Holy Spirit and ask him always to visit our thoughts and our hearts. His visit is the prerequisite for remaining in Christ's friendship: it also guarantees for us an ever deeper, ever more stirring knowledge of the mystery of our Master and Lord. We share in the mystery in a singular way: see are its heralds and, above all, its stewards. This mystery fills us and, through us, like the vine, brings to birth the branches of divine life. How desirable therefore is the time of the coming of this Spirit who "gives life"! How closely our priesthood must he united to him in order to "abide its the vine which is Christ" (Cf. Jn 15:5)!

3. Veni, Creator Spiritus!

A few months from now these same words of the liturgical hymn will open the assembly of the Synod of Bishops which is to be devoted to the priesthood and to the training and continuing formation of priests in the Church. This subject appeared on the horizon of the previous assembly of the Synod three years ago, in 1987. The result of the work of that session of the Synod was the Apostolic Exhortation Chrislifidelis Laici, which in many places has been received with great satisfaction.

This was a subject that needed to be explored, and the work of the Synod, carried out with notable participation by the Catholic laity—men and women from every Continent—proved particularly useful regarding the problems of the apostolate in the Church. It is worth adding that the document Mulieris Dignitatem, which in a way was the completion of the Marian Year, owes its inspiration to the Synod.

But already at that time, there was emerging on the horizon of the work completed the subject of the priesthood and the formation of priests. "Without priests—who are able to call upon the laity to play their role in the Church and in the world, and who can assist in the laity’s formation for the apostolate, supporting them in their difficult vocation—an essential witness in the life of the Church would be lacking". With these words a highly regarded a d expert representative of the laity commented what was to become the subject of the next meeting of the Synod of Bishops of the whole w rid. Nor was this a solitary voice. The same need is felt by the People of God both in the countries where Christianity and die Church have existed for many centuries and in the mission countries where the Church and Christianity are beginning to take root. Although in the first years after the Council a certain disorientation was felt in this area, both by the laity and by pastors of souls, nowadays the need for priests has become obvious and urgent for everyone.

Also implicit in this entire issue is the need for a careful re-reading of the Council’s teaching concerning the relationship between the "priest hood of the faithful", which results from their basic insertion through Baptism into the reality of the priestly mission of Christ, and the "ministerial priesthood", shared in different degrees by bishops, priests and deacons (cf. Lumen Gentium, 10 and 28) This relationship corresponds to the structure of the Church as a community. The priesthood is not an institution that exists "alongside" the laity or "above" it. The priesthood of bishops and priests, as well as the ministry of deacons, is "for" the laity, and precisely for this reason it possesses a "ministerial" character, that is to say one "of service"’. Moreover, it highlights the ‘baptismal priesthood", the priesthood common to all the faithful. It highlights this priesthood and at the same ‘time helps it to be realized in the sacramental life.

We can thus see how the subject of the priesthood and the formation of priests emerges from the very heart of the topics discussed at the last meeting of the Synod of Bishops. We can also see how this subject within this framework, is all the more justified and needed, the more pressing it becomes.

4. It is therefore appropriate that this year’s Sacred Triduum, and Holy Thursday in particular, should be a special time of preparation for the autumn assembly of the Synod of Bishops. During the preparatory phase, which began about two years ago, diocesan and religious priests have been asked to speak tip and to present observations, suggestions and conclusions. Although the topic concerns the Church as a whole, it is nonetheless the priests of the entire world who first and foremost have the right and also the duty to consider this Synod as "their own": indeed, res nostra agitur!

And since at the same time the entire matter is res sacra, it is appropriate that the preparation of the Synod should be based not only on an exchange, of reflections, experiences and suggestions, but also that it should have a sacred character. Much prayer is needed for the work of the Synod. Much depends on that work for the continuing process of renewal begun by the Second Vatican Council. In this field much depends on the "labourers" whom the Lord will send out into his harvest" let. Mt 9:38) Perhaps today, as we approach the Third Millennium of Christ’s rotting, we are experiencing inure deeply both the vastness and the difficulties of the harvest: "The harvest is plentiful"; but we also notice the lack of labourers: "The labourers are few" (Mt 9:37). "Few": and this in regard not only to quantity but also quality! Hence the need for formation! Hence also the Master’s next words: "Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest" (Mt 9:38).

The Synod for which we are preparing must be marked by prayer. Its work must indeed be conducted in an atmosphere of prayer by those actually taking part. But this is not enough. The work of the Synod must be accompanied by the prayer of all priests and of the whole Church. For some weeks now, my Sunday Angelus reflections have been directed towards fostering such prayer.

5. For these reasons Holy Thursday 1990— the dies sacerdotalis of the whole Church—has a fundamental significance for the course of the Synod’s preparation. From this day forward, we must call upon the Holy Spirit, the Giver of life: Veni, Creator Spiritus! No other period affords us such an intimate grasp of the profound truth about Christ a priesthood. He who "entered once for all into the Holy Place with his own blood, thus securing us an eternal redemption" (cf. Heb 9:12), who is himself the priest of the new and everlasting Covenant, at the same time "loved his own who were in the world and loved them to the end" (cf. Jn 13:1). And the measure of this love is the gift of the Last Supper the Eucharist and the Priesthood.

Gathered together around this gift through today’s liturgy, and looking forward to the Synod devoted to the priesthood, let us allow the Holy Spirit to work within us, so that the Church’s mission will continue to mature according to the measure found in Christ (cf. Eph 4:13). May it be granted us to know ever more perfectly "the love of Christ which surpasses all knowledge!" (Eph 3:19). In him and through him may we he "filled with all the fullness of God" (ibid.) in our priestly service.

To all my Brothers in the priesthood of Christ I send the assurance of my esteem and love, with my special Apostolic Blessing.

From the Vatican, on 12 April, Holy Thursday, in the year 1990, the twelfth of my Pontificate.