Message
from the Prefect for the Congregation of the Clergy
Cardinal
Mauro Piacenza
On
the Occasion of Advent 2011
Dear
Priests,
in this special time of
Grace the Most Holy Virgin Mary, Icon and Model of the Church, wants us to be
introduced to that vigilance which is the constant attitude of Her Immaculate
heart.
In fact, the Virgin lived constantly
in prayerful vigilance. In vigilance, She received the announcement that
changed the history of the humanity. In
vigilance, She kept and contemplated, more than any other, the Almighty who
became her Son. In vigilance, filled with
loving and grateful wonder, She gave birth to the Light Himself and, together
with St Joseph, became a disciple of He to whom She had given birth. He was adored by the shepherds and the
kings, welcomed in jubilation by Simeon and the prophetess Anna, feared by the
doctors in the temple, loved and followed by the disciples and opposed and
condemned by His people. In the
vigilance of her maternal heart, Mary followed Christ right up to the foot of
the cross where, in the immense sorrow of a pierced heart, She accepted us as
her new sons. In vigilance, She waited
with certainty for the Resurrection and was Assumed into Heaven.
Dearest friends, Christ
constantly watches over His Church and over every one of us! We are all called to enter into that
vigilance, that passionate observation of reality that moves us between two
fundamental directions: the recollection of meeting Christ in our lives and the
great mystery of being His priests and the openness to the ‘category of possibility’.
The Virgin Mary, was in
fact ‘recollected’, which means that in her heart She constantly relived what
God had done for Her and, in the certainty of this reality, She lived the duty
of being the Mother of the Almighty.
The Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary, was then constantly willing and
open to the ‘possible’, to that materialisation of God’s Will in daily
circumstances and also in those that are most unexpected.
Also today, from heaven,
the Virgin keeps us in Christ’s living memory and continually opens the
possibility of Divine Mercy to us.
Dearest Brothers and
Friends, let us ask Her for a heart that is able to relive Christ’s coming in our lives, a heart able to
contemplate the way in which the Son of God, on the day of our Ordination,
radically and definitely marked our entire existence immerging us in His
priestly heart. He renews us daily in
the Eucharistic Celebration so that our own lives become transfigured into
Christ’s coming for humanity.
Finally, let us ask for an
attentive heart able to recognise the signs of Jesus’ coming in the lives of
every man, especially to the young who are entrusted to us, so that we are able
to recognise the sign of that special coming which is the vocation to the
Priesthood.
The Blessed Virgin Mary,
Mother of the Priests and Queen of the Apostles, always grants those humble
requests for that priestly paternity which is only thing able to “accompany”
the youth on the joyful and enthusiastic journey to follow Christ.
In the “Yes” of the Annunciation,
we are also encouraged to be coherent to the “Yes” of our ordination. In the
Visitation to Saint Elisabeth, we are encouraged to live that divine intimacy
in order to bring Christ’s presence to the others and to translate it into
joyful service without the limits of time and space. In the Holy mother’s act of wrapping the baby Jesus in swaddling
clothes and adoring Him, we learn to
treat the Most Holy Eucharist with an ineffable love. By conserving every event
within our own hearts, we learn from Mary how to gather around the Only Necessity.
With these sentiments I
assure all the dear Priests around the world of a special remembrance in the
Celebration of the Holy Mysteries. I
ask everyone for the prayerful support for the ministry that was entrusted to
me and, before the crib, let us implore the ability to become that what we are
every day.