“Have faith in your priesthood”
Saint John Paul II
“During […] five-hundred-year cycles”, Archbishop Fulton Sheen said, “the Church was attacked in different ways. During the first cycle of five centuries, the Church had to combat heresies centering around the Historical Christ: His Person, His Nature, Intellect and Will. In the second cycle it was the Visible Head of the Church who was denied. In the third cycle it was the Church or the Mystical Body of Christ that was split up into sections or sects. In our day, the attack is secularism and is directed against holiness, sacrifice and self-denial and kenosis.”[1] All of these are intrinsic characteristics of the Catholic priesthood. For this reason, he continues, “The new enemy of the Church is ecological; it pertains to the environment in which she lives.”[2]
It is true that, perhaps like never before, the Catholic priesthood is now attacked on so many different fronts. And it is for this reason that one of the messages Saint John Paul II most insistently repeated to priests was precisely, “have faith in your priesthood.”[3]
May these lines serve as a heartfelt homage and a great encouragement to all the priests of the Institute who, in the midst of great struggles, strive to be “other Christs.”[4]
1. The Priesthood of Christ
Let us first describe Christ’s priesthood.
“Jesus Christ, because of both the union of the Word with human nature and His capital grace, is truly High and Eternal Priest.
- “No one is so true a priest as Christ; all others are priests in His image.
- “No one is more of a High Priest than He, from whom all others participate by derivation.
- “No one is Eternal Priest but Him, who perpetuates His sacrifice on the altars until the end of the centuries, and who will consummate His priesthood in Heaven: You are a priest forever…,[5] Great High Priest,[6] Priest forever.[7]”[8]
- “His priesthood has a superabundant power to expiate all the sins of men: By his wounds we were healed.[9]”[10]
- “He is the most perfect mediator between God and men: For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men…,[11] the covenant he mediates is better.[12]”[13]
“Jesus Christ has no successors. No one succeeds Jesus Christ; no one substitutes Him. There cannot be a more perfect priesthood. The Apostles and their successors do not multiply the one Priesthood of Jesus Christ; only the subjects that participate in the one Priesthood of Jesus Christ are multiplied. […] Jesus Christ does not succeed anyone because His priesthood is new. Every priesthood depends on Jesus Christ, either by being a figure in the Old Testament or by being the reality in the New; this is because His priesthood is the High priesthood. Jesus Christ is not succeeded by anyone, because His priesthood is eternal.”[14]
Therefore, let us say once more: the priesthood of Christ is eternal, immutable; it is a reality that endures for all eternities; it is for all peoples, for all of humanity, throughout all centuries, for all races, in all cultures, and in all languages.[15]
We who have received Holy Orders by the imposition of hands participate in this high, eternal, perfect, immutable, superabundant, and universal priesthood.
Consequently, it is worth repeating here the words of the Apostle, Saint Paul, to his disciple, Timothy: I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control. So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord, […] but bear your share of hardship for the Gospel with the strength that comes from God.[16]
2. The Friends of Jesus
What is this gift of God the apostle speaks of?
“The character of Holy Orders configures the one ordained with Christ the Head,” we read in the Directory of Spirituality, “giving the ministerial priest power over Christ’s physical Body and over His Mystical Body. It allows him to act in persona Christi[17] […]. The members of our Institute who are ministerial priests should return again and again to this ineffable reality which produced an ontological change in them by making them like Christ-the-Head. No secular spirituality can reduce their priestly spirituality.”[18]
That is why the Spiritual Father of our Religious Family, when addressing priests, almost always exhorted them to ponder the gift of God, in these or other words: “Dear priests […]: never stop looking at yourselves interiorly with the eyes of faith renewed each day. You are the chosen ones, the friends of Jesus, the servants of His plan of salvation. Stewards of God’s mysteries on behalf of your communities, enriched with powers that surpass your persons, by virtue of the power received through the imposition of hands,[19] you are the arms, the voice, the heart of Christ who continues saving man today, through your ecclesial ministry.”[20] “You are my friends […] because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.[21] How these words should encourage you in your solitude in remote villages, where fraternal consolation rarely comes! How they must encourage you in your distress before ‘the tragedy of real people in your fields and cities, daily threatened in their subsistence, overwhelmed by misery, hunger, illness, unemployment!’[22] How they must comfort your priestly heart in the face of all kinds of injustice, of abuse of power, of violence against the weak and the small, of the loss (in certain sectors) of moral values!”[23]
How pleasant it is for our priestly soul to “always consider the unheard-of grace of our priesthood”[24] and to “build up, with an renewed awareness of this grace, the strength to generously continue on the path we have taken.”[25] That well-known formula that says that the priest is another Christ is not a metaphor, but rather a marvelous, surprising, and consoling reality[26] that also implies tremendous responsibilities.
Indeed, “this character is a continuous call to the life of grace and holiness; it is an ontological sanctification of the soul because of the image that Christ imprints on it which gives that soul a share in Christ’s very character. It demands moral holiness,[27] in order to avoid a contradiction in the very being of the priest, that is, in the habits and the exercise of virtues (especially charity) that should correspond to the mark upon the soul.”[28] This implies living as though Christ Himself lives in us, constantly reflecting on our behavior, on our sacred ministry, and on our service and treatment of others. In this sense, Fr. Alfredo Sáenz wrote: “If we do not strive to reproduce the true face of the eternal Priest in all our conduct, we would represent Christ by our priestly functions, but we would deny him by the rest of our life, which would imply a kind of intimate divorce, a kind of spiritual schizophrenia.”[29]
We should be aware that Holy Orders has destined us for a specific mission. Therefore, each of us priests has an irreplaceable role and a qualified position to occupy, identifying ourselves with Christ in His triple mission of sanctifying, teaching, and pasturing.
Although we will not elaborate now on the different priestly functions, we do have to say that “the priestly character is a continual disposition and call for priestly and pastoral duties.”
The proclamation of the Gospel, of the whole Gospel, to all kinds of Christians, and including to non-Christians, so that “all mankind will discover the attraction and longing for the divine beauty,”[30] occupies an important place in our lives. Indeed, our proper law says that it is one of our vital functions.[31] Souls have a right… they have a right to have the truth “proclaimed” to them. In this ministry of the word of God, “proclaiming the Word whether convenient or inconvenient[32] in preaching, teaching, writing, doing research, in evangelization, in catechesis, etc.”[33] stands out notably.
We have to enlighten consciences, persuade with the truth, and therefore, we have to master the art of correcting the erring, with charity and opportunely, but without fear of “admonishing a friend, or avoiding some problem or, on occasion, taking advantage of a situation by silence or applause.”[34] Archbishop Fulton Sheen used to say: “If you want people to stay as they are, tell them what they want to hear. If you want to improve them, tell them what they should know.”
The worthy celebration of the sacraments, the administration of the mysteries of God, is likewise central to our priestly life. And for this reason, we must always diligently prepare the faithful to receive them, in such a way that these sacraments that we administer bear fruit. It is worth mentioning that, if the priest has to act in persona Christi, his main act is the immolation and oblation of the sacrifice of the Mass,[35] and in our case, it is the most important act we have to accomplish.[36] All other pastoral activities are oriented, above all, towards the Eucharist.
Last, but not least, we must say that the “spiritual power” that has been given to us,[37] has been entrusted to us for the building up the Church, to lead it as Christ the Good Shepherd, with a humble and disinterested dedication, always welcoming, with availability to take on the different ministries and services that are lacking, with a great willingness to collaborate among us. That is to say, the exercise of authority—which is a service for others—is a duty for the priest. Souls expect leadership from their pastors. Now, if we priests, out of a “spirit of cowardice,” withdraw from such a service, the souls that we must lead will end up straying and could turn from sheep into wolves, even devouring their own pastors. For this reason, as John Paul the Great said: “Your authority in the exercise of your functions is linked to your faithfulness to the Church who entrusted them to you. […] Your field of action, which is vast, is that of faith and morals, in which you are expected to preach both with a decided word and with the example of your life.”[38] Have faith in your priesthood….
“There is no doubt that the pastoral role calls for the exercise of authority: the pastor is the head, the guide, and the teacher; but a second requirement immediately follows, and it is that of service. Authority, in the mind of Christ, is not for the benefit of the one who exercises it, but for the benefit of those to whom it is directed. Authority is a duty and, above all, a ministry to others, to lead them to eternal life. This pastoral role, if carried out in this spirit, leads to its fullest expression, that is, to the complete gift of oneself, to sacrifice, precisely as Jesus said and did: The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.[39] Various pastoral qualities are contained in this perspective, such as humility, generosity, and tenderness; but also the need for various pastoral skills, such as the study of pastoral theology, psychology, and sociology, in order to prevent superficiality in our relations with individual souls and with communities.”[40]
The following wise observation was made to priests: “The faithful in the parish and those who collaborate in various pastoral activities see, observe, feel, and listen, not only when the Word of God is preached, but also when the liturgy is celebrated, especially the Mass; when they are received in the parochial office (which should be comfortable and welcoming);[41] when the priest eats and when he rests and they are edified by his temperance and sobriety; when they visit his home and they rejoice in his simplicity and priestly poverty;[42] when they see him wearing his habit, when they talk with him and discuss common interests and are comforted by his spiritual outlook, his courtesy, and his behavior in treating humble people with priestly nobility.”[43] So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord….
Among many other qualities, this program implies availability, which implies sacrificing oneself.[44] The Incarnate Word said: unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.[45] Hence, the great “charism” of the religious and missionary priestly life, like ours, is generous love—generous love for Christ and for the members of His Mystical Body. This love is expressed in service and is consummated in sacrifice. And so our willingness to totally dedicate ourselves will be in proportion to our love, and when love is perfect, the sacrifice is complete.
3. The Fragility of Nature
Now, any of us, whether one who has been recently ordained or one who has been a priest for many years, will not have taken long to notice his human limitations and the fragility of nature: fatigue, lack of creativity, deficiencies of character, lack of health, great discouragement coming from indifference or criticism or lack of support…. To this can be added the “unfavorable” circumstances for the priestly mission in our times—something that is undeniable—together with the innumerable apostolic tribulations that follow one another and seem to take away all hope.
In fact, who among us has never experienced discouragement? How many of us, looking at the tree of difficulties, lose sight of the forest of good things[46] and fall into the bitterest pessimism. It is a reality, which the Magisterium echoed when it spoke of “evangelizers who are dejected and discouraged.”[47] These are priests who worked with zeal in the beginning. They brought the resources of their apostolate into play. They preached. They gave alms. They thought they were doing as much as they should. But calumny, a skewed interpretation of their actions, the indifference with which their works were received, the hatred that they perhaps aroused, the advice of those who are prudent according to the flesh “not to put too much pressure,” “not to overdo it,” of “the necessity of saving oneself a little,” that “whatever is done is useless,” that “it is all the same,” etc., etc., and above all, the purifying experience of the lack of fraternal support, beat down their spirit, weakening their arms, quenching their enthusiasm, narrowing and darkening their horizons, and in this way, they ended up doing only the ordinary thing and falling into sad discouragement.
There is another element within this panorama that we cannot disregard and that I would like to emphasize, and that is the overabundant strength of the divine power of Christ’s priesthood in which we participate. It is a question of faith. And for this reason, I here again repeat the words of John Paul II: “Have faith in your priesthood. It is the same priesthood as always, because it is a participation in the eternal priesthood of Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.[48]”[49] This cannot be forgotten…. Bear your share of hardship for the Gospel with the strength that comes from God, said the apostle.
We cannot let ourselves get carried away by discouragement in the face of an apparent failure in the apostolate. We cannot give up so easily in the sublime work of evangelization entrusted to us. We always have to keep the memory of the Lord’s blessings in our souls and walk in hope. God does not repent of His gifts. Certainly, on the way of the priestly life, as it could not be otherwise, we must encounter the cross, and, obviously, like Christ, we will have to face the obstacles that will be found in the preaching of the Gospel. But we have to raise our eyes with trust to the One who has called us and who lives and acts in us and through us, thanks to the Holy Spirit. Stir into flame the gift of God that you have…. So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord….
We must never leave off sowing—not because there are difficulties, not because of “lack of talent,” not because “times are bad,” not because “no one listens to me,” not because “I am alone” (and many other real or apparent excuses that we tend to make). “The priestly ministry is called to an activity that knows no fatigue,” said John Paul II. “[…] God’s grace is our principle and incomparable support.”[50] “Those who have the missionary spirit feel Christ’s burning love for souls [… and are] urged on by zeal for souls.”[51] And the Holy Father continues: “Indeed, how can we rest until all those whom Christ wishes to call his own have come to hear of his love?”[52] For this reason, concludes our proper law, quoting the Mystical Doctor: “The soul that walks in love neither tires others nor grows tired.”[53]
The Incarnate Word has elected us! Christ, the perfect Mediator, the Eternal High Priest, who identifies Himself, in a certain sense, with our humble persons, has called us and entrusts the divine power of His word to our poor lips. How salutary it is for the soul to strengthen and root itself ever more profoundly in this sacred reality!
From a human perspective, the difficulties, interior tribulations, adverse circumstances, meeting one’s own weakness at every step, make us want to take our hand from the plow and look to what was left behind.[54] How easily it is in those moments, and how we have to be careful not to fall into that temptation and become that priest “who sows stingily, doing the least possible with the excuse of not falling into over-activity, because ‘we live in bad times,’ or because the family doesn’t raise children as it used to, or because of the ‘unhealthy action of the media…,’ [and who] only knows how to complain: ‘There’s nothing you can do here.’”[55]
The response that corresponds to our priesthood is different: it is that of faith in the Incarnate Word and trust in His word, which again says to us: Lower your nets.[56]
We cannot let ourselves get carried away by discouragement. We are missionaries, and therefore, men of faith! So, in moments of grief and helplessness, we ought to lift our eyes and say to Christ, “Lord, I trust in You! And in Your Name I must keep lowering the nets; even at the price of sacrifices and incomprehension, I must keep fearlessly proclaiming the entire and authentic truth about your Person, about the Church You founded, about man, and about the world You redeemed with your Blood, without reductionisms and without ambiguities;[57] I must keep on seeking, with insatiable thirst, the lost sheep; I must not give up.” For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control….
Saint Manual González masterfully places on Christ’s tongue these words for us, His priests: “Man of little faith!… You know the story of these few words, right? […] That scene of My apostle, sinking into the water for lack of faith in Me is often repeated, and I have had to repeat and still have to repeat to many, from my Tabernacle, at the same time as I give them My hand, so that they do not drown, ‘Man of little faith!’ […] I find so little living faith around Me that sometimes, many times, I would make my Evangelists write again that heartbreaking phrase: For his brothers did not believe in Him.[58]
“Could my sons’ great discouragement, so much human judgment, so much ambition for the earth’s rewards of earth, the earth’s comforts, the earth’s honors, the earth’s life, so much complaining and becoming sad and despairing as though I were not Me and I were not where I am, so much counting on man and on his poor and feeble power and so little counting on Me, so much self-love and so little love of Me, be explained in another way? […]”[59]
“Priest, who, during your visits, so often complain of the fruitlessness of your work, of the sterility of your sacrifice for your people, of the discouragement of your soul before so much abandonment […].
“Priest who sits back or gives up because he cannot do anything. Priest who does not preach on feast days because few are listening, who does not give catechism because few children come, who does not sit early in the confessional because penitents do not come, who abandons the works of zeal he has begun and does not begin any others because little or nothing is achieved! Have you meditated on my parable of the mustard seed? Have you noticed the miracle that I have so often done and so often am ready to repeat, to make every little thing that is sown in my field grow large?
“You want to do great things and you cannot? And it is true: only I do great things. You, do your thing. Little things? I ask only this of you. My priest, sow your little seed! Among many or among few, with immediate success, or late, or none…! The rest… ME.”[60] Have faith in your priesthood…
Perhaps now we understand a little better the depth or scope of that paternal exhortation of Saint John Paul II. We must have faith in the power of Christ that acts in us and through us, despite what we are, working its way between our many weaknesses and miseries, “even in the most difficult situations and under the most adverse conditions.”[61] “Without faith the missionary has no reason to be. He doesn’t exist; or, if he does exist, he is not the true missionary of Jesus Christ. The missionary who wants to live and remain at the height of his vocation must constantly nourish this spirit of faith,”[62] said Blessed Paolo Manna to his religious. “If faith is obscured, then zeal is also diminished; then even the strongest are affected by tiredness and discouragement, and they might end up completely unhappy and lose their vocation. If instead, the missionary lives by faith, then it is great, it is wonderful, it is divine: he can give his whole self to the Church and to souls; no hardship, no difficulty defeats him; no heroism is beyond his power! If the spirit of faith is listless and weak in him, he will be shaken; still, he will work, but he will draw little benefit from his labors, and the small success of his works done half-heartedly will augment his distrust and depression.”[63]
In fact, our duty as priests is to testify to faith. Faith that is shown, among other things, in the effort to sanctify oneself and to serve Christ in others through works of charity; giving oneself generously to the ministry of the word, seeking the most fitting means for the Gospel to really reach every creature;[64] being channels of grace to communicate divine life through the frequent celebration of the sacraments; putting oneself completely at God’s disposition so that He may “make of us an eternal offering;”[65] being, finally, men of prayer because “our feeble breath is only fertile and irresistible when it communes with the Wind of Pentecost.”[66]
How insistently Saint John Paul II urged priests to rekindle “the enthusiasm, the hope, the grace received in your priestly ordination. Remember,” he said to us, “that you often act in persona Christi, in virtute Spiritu Sancti. An interior force that surpasses human capacities and that should carry you—with humility, but with great trust—towards your own inner fulfilment, made maturity of life in Christ.”[67] And once again, “I earnestly ask you to continue to be enthusiastic in your pastoral tasks.”[68]
Fatigue and disappointment should never dampen the freshness of the donation that the priestly vocation demands.
4. Trust
Likewise, inevitable difficulties should not lessen our trust. The priestly vocation implies a participation in Christ’s sufferings, and therefore, we also must be purified in the crucible of apostolic tribulations. For this reason, neither failure nor success should induce us to forget our vocation as servants. We must abandon ourselves to God so that He can make what we have sown grow when and how He wants. Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat.[69]
“Trust,” said our Spiritual Father, “is the summit of hope founded on the word of Christ, who promised us His presence and help.”[70]
What does this trust mean?
- It means trusting above all in the work of grace that acts in the depths of consciences. The most important thing is that we be docile and fitting instruments for grace, even if the effects of our ascetical efforts and apostolate are not always visible.
- It also means trusting in the power of prayer. As painful as our fragility may be, we can at least pray and love. “The history of the Church is tempestuous at all times, because it is a battle of good against evil, and the life of a Christian can also become distressing and difficult, because he is walking uphill, carrying his cross every day. Interior strength comes from prayer made in Christ and with Christ and, therefore, with humility and with a spirit of obedience and dedication.” [71]
- Finally, it means trusting in our own dignity as priests, as religious, keeping far from us all feelings of vain pride, but also without being intimidated by the noise of the threats and pretensions of the world with its errors and pressures.
All of us, to a greater or lesser extent, have experienced the tribulation that comes from being few in a mission and being overloaded with work; we know—and not by hearsay—what it means to lack means; we understand the danger of unfaithfulness in a world that rejects us; we have experienced the laceration of unjust criticism and the file of misunderstanding….
Nevertheless: “Sower, sower, each time that you hear the creak of the Tabernacle doors turning on their hinges, realize that from there within they are saying:
“Sower, sow today as well….
“Sow in spite of bad people that openly persecuted you yesterday; in spite of good people who do not understand you, who interpret you wrongly, and who try to tire you with their murmuring, reluctance, and explosions of bitter zeal; in spite of the ailments of your age and health and of the fatigue and inconstancy of your assistants and helpers…, despite all of this and, above all, despite your wounded and humiliated self-love, keep sowing today with the same peace as on the day of your most copious harvests.”[72]
“Trust, yes, because He wants it. Trust, because His victory is the pledge of our victory. Trust, because if there is a lot that you cannot do, there is a lot, and a lot more, that you can do.”[73]
This is the secret of our trust: when we are weak, then we are strong, and the weaker we are, the stronger, because the more we will let the presence and power of Christ, the Eternal High Priest, shine through. It is the enveloping logic that springs from the cross.
* * *
To all the friends of Jesus who are discouraged today, full of fear, complaints, and disillusionment:
Courage! Let us never stop thanking God for the gift that He has given us of the priesthood and let us never get discouraged by the obstacles. Certainly, the harvest is abundant and the laborers are few, that there is a lot still to do for the cause of Christ and much more than we are able to do, but once we have surrendered our weakness in God’s strength and entrusted ourselves to the protection of our Most Holy Mother, let us go forward with confidence!
We must be aware that we cannot do everything, therefore, we should not get discouraged if we do not achieve all that we desire. But on the other hand, we should convince ourselves that we can do more than we would normally believe that we can, and in this way, keep up or recover our courage, and with it, the joy that always comes from work that we know is good for something.
Let us swell our breasts with a solid and encouraging hope, founded on the words of Christ Himself: Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age,[74] without worrying along the way about what the world considers success or failure, and in this way we will be faithful to the priestly heritage of so many others before us who, being few, with few resources, and in the midst of great difficulties, “spent their lives so that others can have life and hope.”[75]
I conclude with this well-known prayer of the holy bishop, Saint Manuel González, who so avidly dedicated himself to the “work of the resurrection”—as he himself said—of discouraged priests and of hearts killed by pessimism:
Immaculate Mother! May we not grow weary!
Our Mother! A petition! May we not grow weary!
If, though discouragement for the little fruit and ingratitude assails us,
though frailty weakens us,
though the fury of the enemy pursues and slanders us,
though money and human help are lacking,
though our works come tumbling down and we have to begin anew…
Dear Mother!… May we not grow weary!
Steady, determined, brave, always smiling,
with the eyes of our face fixed on our neighbor and on his needs, to come to his aid,
and with the eyes of our soul fixed on the Heart of Jesus in the Tabernacle,
let us take up our posts, that which God has pointed out to each one of us.
No turning back!
No sitting back!
No sterile regrets!
While one drop of blood to spill remains in us,
some coins to give,
a little energy to spend,
a word to say,
encouragement from our heart,
a little strength in our hands or in our feet,
which can be used to give glory to Him and to You and to do a bit of good to our brethren…
My Mother, for the last time! Let us die before we grow weary!
[1] Cf. Fulton Sheen, Those Mysterious Priests, Ch. 10.
[2] Ibidem.
[3] To the Priests gathered in Kinshasa, Zaire (May 4, 1980).
[4] Constitutions, 7.
[5] Ps 110:4.
[6] Heb 4:14.
[7] Heb 6:20.
[8] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 123.
[9] Is 53:5.
[10] Directory of Spirituality, 125.
[11] 1 Tm 2:5.
[12] Heb 8:6.
[13] Directory of Spirituality, 126.
[14] C. Buela, IVE, You Are Priests Forever, Part I, Ch. 2, 16.
[15] Cf. Presbyterorum Ordinis, 10.
[16] 2 Tm 1:6-8.
[17] Exsultate Deo; DzS 1321, Dz 698.
[18] Cf. Directory of Spirituality,133.
[19] Cf. 2 Tm 1:6.
[20] Saint John Paul II, To the clergy of Puerto Rico (October 12, 1984).
[21] Jn 15:14-15
[22] Saint John Paul II, To Peruvian Bishops on their ad Limina visit, (October 4, 1984).
[23] Saint John Paul II, Mass in Plaza de Armas in Cuzco, Perú (February 1, 1985).
[24] Cf. Saint John Paul II, Meeting with priests, religious people, seminarians and novices of Madagascar in Antananarivo (April 30, 1989).
[25] Saint John Paul II, To the Priests gathered in Kinshasa, Zaire (May 4, 1980).
[26] Saint John Paul II, Meeting with the laity and consecrated in the Church of Saint Anthony in Maputo (Mozambique) (September 18, 1988).
[27] According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the model of this sanctification is “Christ, who by love made himself the least and the servant of all” (n. 1551).
[28] Carlos Buela, IVE, You Are Priests Forever, Part I, Ch. 1, 8.
[29] In Persona Christi, Ch. 3, V.2.
[30] Constitutions, 254; 257.
[31] Cf. Directory of the Preaching of the Word, 17.
[32] 2 Tm 4:2.
[33] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 33.
[34] Directory of Spirituality, 253.
[35] Directory of Spirituality, 133.
[36] Cf. Constitutions, 137.
[37] Cf. Presbyterorum Ordinis, 6.
[38] Saint John Paul II, To the Priests gathered in Kinshasa, Zaire (May 4, 1980).
[39] Jn 10:11.
[40] Saint John Paul II, To the Clergy of Todi and Orvieto (November 22, 1981).
[41] Cf. Pastores Dabo Vobis, 43.
[42] Cf. Presbyterorum Ordinis, 17; CIC, can. 282; Pastores Dabo Vobis, 30.
[43] C. Buela, IVE, You Are Priests Forever, Part II, Ch. 3, 5.
[44] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 146.
[45] Jn 12:24.
[46] Cf. Constitutions, 123.
[47] Cf. Evangelii Nuntiandi, 80; quoted in the Directory of Missions Ad Gentes, 144.
[48] Heb 13:8; Rev 1:17ss.
[49] To the Priests gathered in Kinshasa, Zaire (May 4, 1980).
[50] Cf. Saint John Paul II, To priests, religious and seminarians gathered in the Cathedral of Palermo (November 20, 1982).
[51] Redemptoris Missio, 89.
[52] Saint John Paul II, Meeting with priests, religious, seminarians and laity gathered in the Cathedral of the Assumption in Banjul, Gambia (February 23, 1992).
[53] Directory of Spirituality, 108; op. cit. Saint John of the Cross, Maxims on Love, 18.
[54] Cf. Lk 9:62.
[55] Directory of Spirituality, 108.
[56] Lk 5:4.
[57] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 63.
[58] Jn 7:5.
[59] Cf. Saint Manuel González, Qué hace y qué dice el Corazón de Jesús en el Sagrario, Ch. V.
[60] Ibidem.
[61] Constitutions, 30.
[62] Apostolic Virtues, Ch. 2, 7.
[63] Ibidem.
[64] Cf. Mk 16:15.
[65] Misal Romano, Eucharistic Prayer III.
[66] Constitutions, 18.
[67] Saint John Paul II, To the clergy of Puerto Rico (October 12, 1984).
[68] Saint John Paul II, Celebration of Lauds at the Major Seminary of Madrid (June 16, 1993).
[69] Jn 12:24.
[70] To priests, religious and seminarians in the Cathedral of Cagliari (October 20, 1985).
[71] Ibidem.
[72] Saint Manuel González, Qué hace y qué dice el Corazón de Jesús en el Sagrario.
[73] Saint Manuel González, Lo que puede un cura hoy, Ch. II.
[74] Mt 28:20.
[75] Cf. Directory of Consecrated Life, 270; op. cit. Vita Consecrata, 105.
