“Almighty Father, grant to these servants of yours the dignity of the
priesthood. Renew within them the Spirit of holiness. As co-workers with the
order of bishops may they be faithful to the ministry that they receive from
you, Lord God, and be to others a model of right conduct.”
Pontificale Romanum: De Ordinatione Episcopi,
presbyterorum et diaconorum,
Edition typical, Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis 1990)
From the Vatican, 15th January
2010
Dear Brothers in
the Priesthood,
A central part of
the prayer of ordination recalls how the Priest is essentially a gift, and,
exactly in view of that “supernatural gift”, he carries himself with a dignity
which everyone, clergy and lay faithful, are called to recognise. One has in
mind a dignity which is not the work of man but which is the pure gift of
grace, to which one is called and which no one can demand as a right. The
dignity of the priesthood, bestowed by the “Almighty Father”, must be evident
in the life of priests: in their sanctity, in their welcoming humanity full of
humility and pastoral charity, in the clarity of their faithfulness to the
Gospel and the doctrine of the Church, in the sobriety and solemnity of their
celebration of the divine mysteries, in their ecclesiastical garb. Everything
in the priest must lead him to recall, to himself and to the world, that he is
the object of an unmerited gift beyond any merit of his, which makes him an
efficacious presence of the Absolute in the world for the salvation of men.
The Spirit of
holiness, which one begs might be poured forth anew, is the guarantee to be
able to live the vocation one has received in “holiness” and, at the same time,
the condition of the very possibility to be “faithful to the ministry”.
Faithfulness is the wonderful meeting of the faithful freedom of God and the
created but wounded freedom of man, which, however, through the power of the
Spirit, becomes sacramentally capable “to be to others a model of right conduct”.
Far from reducing the ministerial priesthood to a moralistic category, such an
exhortation shows the “fullness” of life: a life which is really thus is a life
that is integrally Christian.
The Priest,
clothed with the Spirit of the Almighty Father, is called to “guide” the
journey of sanctification of the people entrusted to him by teaching and the
celebration of the sacraments and, above all, with his own life, with the
certainty that this is the only end for which the priest himself exists:
Paradise!
The gift of the
Father makes of the “sons-priests” his beloved; a portio electa populi Dei,
which is called to “be chosen” and also to gleam by the holiness of life and
the witness of faith.
May the memory of
the gift received, always renewed by the Spirit and the protection of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, Handmaid of the Lord and Tabernacle of the Holy Spirit,
allow each Priest to “faithfully fulfil” his mission in the world, in joyful
expectation of the heavenly reward kept safe for the chosen sons, who are also
heirs.
Titular Archbishop of Vittoriana
Secretary