Living Without School: Holy Priests

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Holy Priests

Prayed at mass, an Installation Mass last night, a Mass to install one of the Conventual Franciscan friars as parish priest. In Melbourne.

Yes, I am in Melbourne! Lucky me!

During the reverent, beautiful, solemn Mass, a Mass worshipping Our Lord, the Holy Sacrifice, a mass honouring the vocation of the priesthood, I was reminded, yet again, of our need for holy priests and religious. Our need. The laity. The Church. The world. Our need of their example, their prayers, their vocations, their masses.

"For if anyone will consider how great it is, being a man, and compassed with flesh and blood, to be enabled to draw nigh to that pure and blessed nature, he will clearly see what honour the grace of the Spirit has vouchsafed to priests, since by their agency these rites are celebrated, and others nowise inferior to these both in respect of our dignity and of our salvation. " St John Chrysostom, On the Priesthood.

"Those who rule on earth have indeed authority to bind, but only the body, whereas this binding lays hold of the soul, and penetrates the heavens, and what priests do here below, God ratifies above..."

"..when one is required to preside over the Church, and be entrusted with the care of so many souls, the whole female sex must retire before the magnitude, and the majority of men also..."

This Saint tells it like it is!

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Prayer of Consecration of St. Maximilian Kolbe

O Immaculata, Queen of Heaven and earth, refuge of sinners and our most loving Mother, God has willed to entrust the entire order of mercy to thee. I, N___, a repentant sinner, cast myself at thy feet humbly imploring thee to take me with all that I am and have, wholly to thyself as thy possession and property. Please make of me, of all my powers of soul and body, of my whole life, death and eternity, whatever most pleases thee. If it pleases thee, use all that I am and have without reserve, wholly to accomplish what was said of thee: "She will crush your head," and, "Thou alone have destroyed all heresies in the whole world."

Let me be a fit instrument in thine Immaculate and merciful hands for introducing and increasing the maximum in all the many strayed and indifferent souls, and thus help extend as far as possible the blessed Kingdom of the most Sacred Heart of Jesus. For wherever thou enters, one obtains the grace of conversion and growth in holiness, since it is through thy hands that all graces come to us from the most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

V. Allow me to praise thee O Sacred Virgin.
R. Give me strength against thy enemies.

Prayer of St Bonaventure

Pierce, O most Sweet Lord Jesus, my inmost soul with the most joyous and healthful wound of Thy love, with true, serene, and most holy apostolic charity, that my soul may ever languish and melt with love and longing for Thee, that it may yearn for Thee and faint for Thy courts, and long to be dissolved and to be with Thee.Grant that my soul may hunger after Thee, the bread of angels, the refreshment of holy souls, our daily and supersubstantial bread, having all sweetness and savor and every delight of taste; let my heart ever hunger after and feed upon Thee, upon whom the angels desire to look, and may my inmost soul be filled with the sweetness of Thy savor; may it ever thirst after Thee, the fountain of life, the fountain of wisdom and knowledge, the fountain of eternal light, the torrent of pleasure, the richness of the house of God.May it ever compass Thee, seek Thee, find Thee, run to Thee, attain Thee, meditate upon Thee, speak of Thee, and do all things to the praise and glory of Thy name, with humility and discretion, with love and delight, with ease and affection, and with perseverance unto the end.May Thou alone be ever my hope, my entire assurance, my riches, my delight, my pleasure, my joy, my rest and tranquility, my peace, my sweetness, my fragrance, my sweet savor, my food, my refreshment, my refuge, my help, my wisdom, my portion, my possession and my treasure, in whom may my mind and my heart be fixed and firmly rooted immovably henceforth and for ever. Amen.