Pope John Paul II and the Priesthood

Today, 32 years ago, the Holy Spirit prompted the conclave of cardinals to elect a new Pope: John Paul II. This is the power of saying 'yes' to God, none more so than when a young man says 'yes' to serving Christ as His priest. Perhaps, in our midst, is a future pope who simply needs your encouragement to enable him to say 'yes' to Christ when He says "come" and become His priest...

First Blessings

H/T to Vincenzo over at SANCTE PATER for this video of an FSSP priest giving first blessings. It's lovely to see the crowds who, clearly, seek the spiritual blessings. At the risk, however, of sounding Palagian, I thought he might have put a little more effort into his work!

To Be the Balm

By Fr. Robert Barron

All priests are shaped by the times in which they come of age. Our newly ordained, young-in-service clerics belong to a generation of priests ordained to follow the greatest crisis in the history of American Catholicism, the Long Lent of the clerical sex abuse scandal. They are not responsible for this mess, but, fairly or not, they will carry a good portion of its burden. These men will experience a scrutiny and suspicion that previous generations of priests never did.

My advice to them is this: seize this chance to heal; you are up to the task. In the immediate wake of the scandals in 2002, there was great concern among seminary faculty and administrators that numbers would plunge. Who, after all, would want to sign up for a form of life that was regularly subjected to bitter critique and that seemed, in the eyes of many, to be dysfunctional? And yet you came, and you stayed.

No one could possibly accuse you of seeking an easy life or hiding from your problems. Your very presence and perseverance in the seminary constituted, therefore, a vivid sign that God stubbornly, in season and out, calls people to the priesthood. Don't lose the love that brought you to the seminary, or the grace that saw you through it during a remarkably dark time; instead, deepen the love, broaden it, strengthen it through that grace.

Be strong and holy priests. Remain focused on prayer, both private and public; live your lives with integrity, realizing that you are a priest whether before human eyes, or God's alone; preach with energy and panache; love your people the way parents love their children. The many institutional changes that the church has made in regard to the protection of children are, obviously, indispensible, but they alone will never constitute an adequate response to the scandal. What is crucial is the decency of your generation of priests.

Don't think of this as an unfair expectation, but rather as a thrilling opportunity.

Your priesthood has a great assist in the accessibility of communications technology that men like Billy Graham or Fulton Sheen would have embraced and quickly mastered, to powerful effect. Take advantage of all of this; seize it for the sake of the Gospel. Jesus told us to preach to "all the nations," and Vatican II specified that that the primum officium (first duty) of the priest is to proclaim the Word. Today the average parish priest has the capacity to get the message out 24/7, all around the world. Use new media pro-actively; let the Holy Spirit guide you to the allurement of God's people -- as in Hosea 2:14 -- in bold and sanctifying contrast to the vast wasteland that clutters the mind and warps the soul. Mount a website, get something on YouTube, pod-cast your sermons, post advice on FaceBook and tweet daily. Yes there is always the danger of superficiality, but Fulton Sheen faced that same danger fifty years ago and met it with enormous intelligence and creativity.

I really believe that now is a great time to be a priest. Some of the holiest saints have emerged during periods much like our own, fraught with difficulties and rich in opportunities. Don't shrink from any of it, brothers. Ad multos annos!

Fr. Robert Barron is an award winning author and prominent theologian. His Word on Fire ministry evangelizes using a broad range of new media. George Weigel has said Barron's Catholicism Project "could well become one of the most significant efforts ever to advance what John Paul II called "The New Evangelization." This piece was part of an address delivered to new priests at Rome's Pontifical North American College.

H/t to The Deacon's Bench for leading me to this article on patheos.

Yet more anniversaries

This is the season of ordinations and thus my 'happy anniversary' wishes continue. Today we give thanks for the priesthood of Paul Smith, ordained two years ago, and for David Oakley, ordained thirty years ago! Well done, to both men, and especially to Fr David for his longevity.

To celebrate Fr David's anniversary a few of us enjoyed a rather splendid lunch at The Boathouse in Sutton Coldfield Park. A magnificent setting, but there doesn't seem to be a website to direct you to. Rather an exciting venue to happen upon whilst out meandering the billowing meadows and glens of one of the best parks in the country. It struck me as a nice day out, all told, though I'm bound to say there was no meandering for me. Rather a fast drive up from Coventry right to the door. A repeat visit is a must, not least to have more of that delicious Eynsham Asparagus Mousse and let us not even think about the Chocolate Brandy Cake. Mmm, humm.

Happy Anniversary, Father

(This is Fr Paul looking over Jerusalem
whilst on pilgrimage to the Holy Land)

Today is the first anniversary of ordination to the priesthood of my one time class mate, Fr Paul Leonard. So let us publicly say, Happy Anniversary, Father.

Fr Andrew Berry OSB

Fr Andrew Berry OSB, Bishop Tom Burns, Students of Oscott College

Do please pray for a dear friend, Andrew Berry, who was ordained at Belmont Abbey on the feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist. Things are busy at the parish at the moment, hence the lack of posting, so please do remember all here, too, in your prayers.

Pastoral Letter from Archbishop Bernard Longley

PASTORAL LETTER

OF THE

ARCHBISHOP OF BIRMINGHAM

THE MOST REVEREND BERNARD LONGLEY

FOR 13^th SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

27 JUNE 2010

Dear Brother and Sisters in Christ

Earlier this month, on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Year for Priests drew to a close. Pope Benedict had asked the Church to dedicate a year, beginning in June 2009, to prayer and reflection on the gift of the priesthood. It has given us an opportunity to look again towards Jesus himself, the great High Priest, who has offered the perfect sacrifice to his Father so that we might become holy.

In the course of this year we have given thanks for the way that our Lord shares his priesthood within the Church. Through our baptism we are a priestly people, making an offering of our service day by day. As I begin to know the diocese better I see many examples of this, especially in the worship and liturgical life of parish communities, in the mission of our schools, and in the many and varied pastoral initiatives that reach out to those most in need of help.

All of this is enabled, encouraged and enhanced by the witness and work of the priests of our diocese. This year has helped us especially to thank our Lord for the particular expression of his priesthood in the life and service of each individual priest. He has chosen quite a variety of personalities and characters in whom we can see different and complementary reflections of the one priesthood of our Lord.

During this year we have prayed every day for one of the priests living and working in the diocese, and I know how much our priests have valued these prayers. Many have spoken with gratitude of the letters and phone calls they received reminding them of your prayers and appreciation for their vocation. I too thank you for your prayers in support of our priests.

As the Year for Priests closes I thank all our priests for their love of Christ as the foundation of their lives, their dedication in serving all God’s people and their friendship and support for one another which bears such fruit within the diocese, not least in encouraging vocations.

In this Sunday’s readings we can hear echoes in the ministry of Elijah of the call to priestly service. At the Lord’s prompting Elijah goes to find a “prophet to succeed” him. Elijah’s ministry as prophet is to continue for the benefit of the people and so “Elijah passed near to [Elisha] and threw his cloak over him.” In the same way the priesthood of our Lord has to touch every generation and he has thrown his mantle over those ordained as priests.

Elisha’s first response is both enthusiastic and hesitant – he wants to follow Elijah but finds it hard to cut the ties with his old way of life. Those who are thinking about the priesthood may experience a similar dilemma as our Lord calls them to a new way of life. We pray that they may be generous and wholehearted in their response to Christ’s invitation – they need never feel hesitant about the happiness it brings. I hope that they will feel encouraged to attend the Invocation event at St Mary’s College, Oscott next weekend.

St Luke’s Gospel shows us an important turning point in our Lord’s own life and ministry: “As the time drew near for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely took the road to Jerusalem.” As the great moment of his priestly sacrifice approached the direction of our Lord’s life was set. In a similar way the Lord sets the direction of a man’s life at its deepest level when he is ordained as priest. The rest of his life and ministry is a resolute following along the path marked out by Christ.

As the Year for Priests has shown this is not a solitary journey, for just as on the road to Jerusalem there are companions on the way, those with whom we share all or part of the road. The communities served by our priests are also the communities who encourage and sustain them. Priests lead others to follow the Lord by resolutely following him themselves.

This Tuesday, the feast of St Peter and St Paul, I shall be a pilgrim in Rome and I shall pray at the tomb of the Apostles for all the priests and deacons, religious men and women and lay-faithful of our diocese. I shall pray especially, and with gratitude, for our life and mission together as that part of the Lord’s flock now entrusted to my care.

As a symbol of that care the Holy Father will place the pallium on my shoulders. This little woollen vestment is a reminder of the bonds of love and obedience that unite us with the Successor of Peter and of the responsibility entrusted to me to serve the priests and people of our diocese. As the Year for Priest closes, I hope that I may always serve God’s people faithfully especially through giving time and support to our priests.

Please pray for me this Tuesday as I receive the pallium. Pray also for our priests who wear the mantle of Christ, the Good Shepherd. May we resolutely follow Christ together, and as the summer approaches may you find opportunities to be refreshed and renewed, priests and people of God alike.

+Bernard Longley

Archbishop of Birmingham

Given at Birmingham on the 22 June 2010 and appointed to be read in all Churches and Chapels of the Diocese on the weekend of 26/27 June 2010.

The 'potestas sacra'

Pope Benedict presided over the ordination of 14 men to the priesthood yesterday in Rome. His full homily is here. This particular point I thought very encouraging for those about to be ordained.

You are granted today, with the sacrament of Holy Orders, to preside at the Eucharist! You are entrusted with the redemptive sacrifice of Christ, you are entrusted with his body that is given and his blood that is shed. Of course, Jesus offers his sacrifice, his humble and total gift of love, to the Church his Bride, on the cross. It was on that wood, that the Father dropped a grain of wheat in the field of the world so that dying it would become mature fruit, the giver of life. But, in God's plan, this gift of Christ is made present in the Eucharist thanks to that "potestas sacra" that the sacrament of Orders confers on you presbyters. When we celebrate Holy Mass we hold in our hands the Bread of Heaven, the Bread of God, which is Christ, the grain broken to multiply and become the true food of life for the world. It is something that cannot but fill you with intimate wonder, lively joy and immense gratitude: Now the love and gift of Christ crucified and glorious, pass through your hands, your voice, your heart! It is an ever new experience of wonder to see that in my hands, in my voice the Lord accomplishes this mystery of his presence!

Please pray for Br Andrew Berry OSB, Michael Collis, Luke Goymour & Michael Puljic who are to be ordained over the next three weeks, and Fr Gary Buckby who was ordained last weekend. Finally, please also pray for Pascal Ravi Bhaskar, Wilfred Joseph & Vincent Aruluandhu, all Sacred Hearth brothers who were ordained deacon yesterday.

God be with you all.

Update Oops, that should be Sacred Heart, not Sacred Hearth. I'm not sure if God would have a fireplace in Heaven, but it raises an interesting theological debate!

Inspiring call to the priesthood

H/T to The Deacon's Bench for this inspiring tale of a priest called in the midst of the misery of his uncle's murder.

From suburban Maryland comes this story of how the murder of a priest inspired his nephew to pursue his own vocation.

The chalice Thomas Wells used in mass for 29 years will go with his nephew on Sunday when David Wells takes over as priest of his own parish. The chalice was passed down to David by his family who thought his uncle would want him to have it.

In a Father's Day Mass on Sunday, David Wells said, he will speak of the lessons he learned from his uncle, who was a father figure to many people.

"My uncle was definitely a spiritual father and he led many people to a spiritual maturity through his words and scripture," he said. "My own dad, who has the same passion for the Catholic faith, raised me and prepared me for the day when I would become a priest."

Simplicity, Honesty & Joy - the core values of the Priesthood

Close of the Year for Priests - An interview with Archbishop Vincent Nichols from Catholic Westminster on Vimeo.

The Archbishop of Westminster speaks on the core values of the priesthood and other matters, including the forthcoming grace of the beatification of Cardinal Newman - an English Parish Priest.

H/T Da Cura Animarum

Priesthood and The Eucharist

Without the priesthood there can be no Eucharist. It’s worth a moment or two to pause and to reflect upon this statement. Without the priesthood there can be no Eucharist. It is a bold assertion and not so popular in a world which seeks to be all things to all men. To hold to the clear and unequivocal teaching of the Church that only a priest can celebrate the Eucharist is, indeed, both a challenge and a comfort. Let’s hear what the Council fathers taught us:

"In the mystery of the Eucharistic sacrifice…the priests exercise their principal function…because the priests alone have received from Christ Himself the formidable power to render present, sacramentally, His Body and His Blood, to perpetuate through the centuries the sacrifice of the Cross."

As we approach, now, the close of the Year for Priests it is fitting that our reflection upon the Body and Blood of Christ should be within the context of today’s readings. Seemingly from nowhere comes the king and priest Melchizedek. Just as surely he disappears from our view and yet much ink has been spilt in trying to learn what God reveals to us in this mysterious person. He is a foretaste of the Christ to come. He is, in so many ways, like Jesus himself. His prominence is beyond doubt. Even our great Father in Faith, Abraham, recognises in Melchizedek the priest of God Most High and gives him one tenth of everything. Such is the love for the priest that we happily give 10% of all we have. It is a wonderful tradition of our Church that priests remain entirely dependent upon the people of God; it helps to keep us grounded and humbled.

All this hype of the value of the priest, however, can easily make us anything but humble. Recent scandals merely reveal the all too oft realisation that priests are only human and prone to err. Let us not, however, allow ourselves to be detracted from just how wonderful is the gift of the priesthood. Why is this so? Why is the priest held in such high regard? Why do you love your priests?

This is what I received from the Lord, and in turn passed on to you. These words of St Paul to the Corinthians should be at the forethought of every action of every priest in every age. Why so: simply because it is what Jesus told us. Do this in memory of me. In these words he not only instituted the Eucharist as the memorial of his Body and Blood, he also instituted the Priesthood to enable his beloved children to receive regularly this nourishment in their life: this strength which is beyond compare.

Thomas a Kempis wrote: "What a wonderful mystery is this great dignity of priests, to whom is given that which is not given even to the angels! Priests alone, being rightfully ordained in the Church, receive the power to celebrate and to consecrate the Body of Christ." This is why we love our priests. This and this alone is why the priesthood is. You would be mistaken if you think I mean by this that the priest’s existence is merely to celebrate Mass. Rather it is what the Mass is and it is nothing less than God himself coming amongst us in the real presence of his body and blood.

So the priest, then, brings to us the presence of God. This is the way we can judge our priests. Do they bring to us God? The celebration of the Mass, however, is also the means by which the priesthood is nourished. Jesus not only teaches us about our salvation through the celebration of the Mass, but he himself comes to us as the means of our salvation. This is why we need to regularly come to Mass. To share in his saving work; for the priest this has long been recommended a daily sacrifice and for the faithful we are ordered to weekly feed at the table of the Lord, at least. If we do not eat and drink, then it is but a matter of time before we will show the effects of malnutrition, we become ill, and we will eventually die. The Eucharist is no different. It is not only the real presence of Jesus; it is real food and drink to sustain our spirit.

Today of all days thank God for the great gift of the priesthood. Thank God for the most Holy Eucharist. Thank God for our daily bread.

Priesthood

Over the past few days we have been praying using the words of Cardinal Newman. Now I would like us to think about the priesthood in these last few days of the Year for Priests.

Kicking us off is Archbishop Dolan who was talking at Maynooth seminary in Ireland. There is an interview available on the Irish Bishops' website, here, but I'm unable to embed the video onto this blog. You have to click and watch.

Also available is the full text of his speech, again available here. This is an extract:

As a priest we are called to be configured to Christ as priest, head, and shepherd of His Church. Never was Jesus more priest, head, and shepherd of the Church than when He was on the cross. We priests don’t whine with the thief on the left, “Get down off your cross and get me down off mine.” Nope. We’re like Dismas who tells the Lord, “I’m happy to be next to you on Calvary.”

...

The late, great John Paul II went hoarse teaching us that the priesthood is a dramatic, radical reordering of a man’s very life, his soul, his heart, his identity, and that we’re much better off looking at fathers and husbands for metaphors of priesthood than we are at professions.

Thus, the priesthood is a call, not a career; a redefinition of self, not just a ministry; a
way of life, not a job; a state of being, not a function; a permanent, lifelong commitment, not a temporary style of service; an identity, not a role. (By the way, the loss of this, what we call “ontological” appreciation of priesthood applies as well to marriage, religious life, and, for that matter, to Christian, ecclesial identity conferred in baptism, but you didn’t ask me to speak on that.)

If the very value of my priestly vocation depends on what I do, where I’m assigned, how the people affirm me, how my bishop treats me, what the newspapers report about us, what horrible sins brother priests may have committed, what negligence was shown by their bishops, how much I get out of it, or how high or low morale may be at a given time -- if the very value of our priesthood depends upon those external forces, however dominant they may be; if, in a word, my value depends on what I do, sooner or later we’ll get frustrated, cynical, exhausted, crabby, bored, and tempted. Our value must come from who we are.