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It’s Day 214!!
THE ORDINATION OF PRIESTS- CO-WORKERS OF THE BISHOPS
What is that role?
What is the dignity of the priesthood?
What is the priesthood’s most sacred character?
How are priests expected to live?
They are expected to exercise the divinely given power in a way that imitates Jesus in EVERYTHING
How did Jesus live out this priesthood?
How did Jesus live out this ministry and this mission?
Jesus spoke the TRUTH
Jesus taught POWERFULLY
Jesus healed the sick
Jesus had this mission of SANCTIFYING and making whole again
Jesus had a mission of establishing and leading people
From the very beginning, Jesus called people to Himself and led them
The triple office of the bishop is to sanctify, teach, and govern
The priest also participates in that
Priests are the co-workers of the bishops
They form a unique kind of brotherhood in the Church
What is brotherhood for?
What is ministry for?
The teaching, sanctifying, and governing ministry are at the service of the People of God for the glory of God the Father
Let’s pray!!
Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, thank you. Thank you for bringing us to this day. Thank you for giving us the gift of your grace. Thank you for continuing to bind up the weak. Thank you for continuing to heal our wounds. Thank you for continuing to forgive our sins. Lord, God, thank you for continuing to give us yourself in the Eucharist, pouring out your Holy Spirit upon us. Whenever we pray, whenever we ask you, Father, for your Holy Spirit, you hear the prayer of your children, and you respond with love because you are a good Father. We ask you, in this day, when we talk about priests, we ask you to please help these priests be good fathers. Help these priests to be men after your own heart. Help them to govern, to teach, to sanctify in the way that you would. And we ask you to please, please bless our local priests. Make them holy. Help them where they need help. Strengthen them where they need strengthening. Heal them where they need healing. Forgive them of all their sins. And, Lord God, help them to be the kind of men that we need. Help them to be the priests that we need them to be. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen”
So there we have it!!
If you have never been to an ordination, you might be confused
SO BEAUTIFUL!!
SO POWERFUL!!
Even if Fr. Mike was not a priest, he would be doing backflips over this
BECAUSE THIS IS THE LOVE OF GOD THE FATHER!!
THIS IS THE LOVE OF GOD THE SON!!
THIS IS THE LOVE OF GOD POURED OUT TO US!!
That is what priests are supposed to be
That is what the bishop is supposed to be
Why?
BECAUSE JESUS WANTS ALL OF US TO BE HOLY!!
Jesus wants all of us to come into contact with Him and with the Father and to be filled with the Holy Spirit
Paragraph 1562 says, “‘Christ, whom the Father hallowed and sent into the world, has, through his apostles, made their successors, the bishops namely, sharers in his consecration and mission; and these, in their turn, duly entrusted in varying degrees various members of the Church with the office of their ministry.’”
The bishops and priests are sent out into the world to extend and continue the mission and ministry of Jesus, who wants ALL HUMAN BEINGS TO KNOW GOD THE FATHER
Jesus wants ALL HUMAN BEINGS TO COME INTO CONTACT WITH GOD THE FATHER AND HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD THE FATHER
SO POWERFUL!!
Bishops are the ones who share in the fullness of Holy Orders and Christ’s high priesthood
Paragraph 1563 says, “Hence the priesthood of priests, while presupposing the sacraments of initiation, is nevertheless conferred by its own particular sacrament. Through that sacrament priests by the anointing of the Holy Spirit are signed with a special character and so are configured to Christ the priest in such a way that they are able to act in the person of Christ the head.’”
IN PERSONA CHRISTI CAPITIS
Paragraph 1564 says, “‘Whilst not having the supreme degree of the pontifical office, and notwithstanding the fact that they depend on the bishops in the exercise of their own proper power, the priests are for all that associated with them by reason of their sacerdotal dignity…”
“Sacerdote” is Spanish for PRIEST
SACERDOTAL DIGNITY means priestly dignity
Paragraph 1564 continues, “...and in virtue of the sacrament of Holy Orders, after the image of Christ, the supreme and eternal priest, they are consecrated in order to preach the Gospel and shepherd the faithful as well as to celebrate divine worship as true priests of the New Testament.’”
They are consecrated to preach the Gospel
That’s teaching
They are consecrated to shepherd the faithful
That’s governing
They are consecrated to celebrate divine worship as true priests in the New Testament
That’s sanctifying
PRIEST, PROPHET, AND KING
The role that all Christians have by virtue of their Baptism
The role that bishops have by virtue of their ordination to the episcopacy
Priests also participate and share in the same role
Priest-sanctifying
Prophet-teaching
King-governing
Leading is in the lens of service
Paragraph 1565 says, “Through the sacrament of Holy Orders priests share in the universal dimensions of the mission that Christ entrusted to the apostles. The spiritual gift they have received in ordination prepares them, not for a limited and restricted mission, ‘but for the fullest, in fact the universal mission of salvation ‘to the end of the earth,’ ‘prepared in spirit to preach the Gospel everywhere.’”
This mission has been entrusted to priests to be lived out and carried out in season and out of season
It has to be carried out with his whole life and not be limited to just one area of his life
His whole life must be conformed to Jesus the High Priest
This is the call of every Christian
All of us are called to conform our lives to Christ
We have to live out that mission with every breath
We have to live out that mission in every moment
This is a high call
Paragraph 1566 says, “‘It is in the Eucharistic cult or in the Eucharistic assembly of the faithful (synaxis) that they exercise in a supreme degree their sacred office; there, acting in the person of Christ and proclaiming his mystery, they unite the votive offerings of the faithful to the sacrifice of Christ their heard, and in the sacrifice of the Mass they make present again and apply, until the coming of the Lord, the unique sacrifice of the New Testament, that namely of Christ offering himself once for all a spotless victim to the Father.’ From this unique sacrifice their whole priestly ministry draws its strength.”
This is the office of sanctifying
THAT IS SO POWERFUL!!
This is the great mission
What is happening at every Mass?
When we show up for Mass, we offer ourselves because we participate in the baptismal priesthood of Jesus
The ministerial priest is uniting our offering of the faithful to the sacrifice of Jesus Himself
Jesus’ sacrifice is presented and offered to the Father
The priest is offering not only Jesus
The priest is offering himself and us to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit with Jesus Christ, the great sacrifice once for all
SO INCREDIBLE!!
This is so essential to a priest’s life
From offering Mass on a daily basis, their whole priestly ministry draws its strength
What is at the heart of the priesthood?
The priestly heart of Jesus who offers Himself to the Father in the Power of the Holy Spirit, who brings His people and includes them in the sacrifice
SO INCREDIBLE!!
The priest does not do this on his own
He does this in union with his bishop
In the priestly ordination there is this promise, even at the diaconate ordination, of OBEDIENCE they make to the bishop
There is this moment where the soon-to-be ordained priest prays with his hands together and the bishop takes his hands in his and says, “Do you promise obedience to me and my successors?”
“I do” is the answer to that question
At the end, there is this sign of peace, the embrace
Paragraph 1567 says, “The promise of obedience they make to the bishop at the moment of ordination and the kiss of peace from him at the end of the ordination liturgy mean that the bishop considers them his coworkers, his sons, his brothers and his friends, and that they in return owe him love and obedience.”
There is a hierarchy here
It’s not meant to be a business
This is the family of God
They are coworkers in the vineyard
They are sons because the bishop is a spiritual father to them
They are brothers and friends because they share in this priestly ministry
What does Jesus say?
“I no longer call you slaves because a slave does not know what his master is about. I have called you friends.”
I HAVE CALLED YOU FRIENDS!!
The bishop is to consider his priests his friends in that way that Jesus considered His disciples as friends
IT IS REMARKABLE!!
There is also a brotherhood in the priesthood
It sometimes manifests itself in really great ways and in really thin ways
Paragraph 1568 says, “‘All priests, who are constituted in the order of the priesthood by the sacrament of Order, are bound together by an intimate sacramental brotherhood, but in a special way they form one priestly body in the diocese to which they are attached under their own bishop…’”
Some dioceses are thinner
It’s not like the brotherhood does not exist
It’s always unique
It is a mysterious, sacramental brotherhood
Sometimes there is not the emotional brotherhood
Some priests may find themselves alone
They have brothers but they may not be able to be in brotherhood with those brothers
So we need to pray for those priests who have lost their fire, lost their love for Jesus in the Eucharist, those who have lost their love for Our Lady, those who have lost their love for God’s people
We need to pray for them right now because that is not what God wants for any of them or us
We are ONE FAMILY
We are ONE BODY
We all have different parts
WE NEED EACH OTHER!!
Pray to God for those great priests you have had in your life and that they continue to be great priests
Pray that those who started well end well
Pray for those who have started poorly or have lived poorly
Pray for them to be strengthened with faith, hope, and love
Pray for them to be renewed
Pray for them to be brought back to the heart of the Father
Pray that they may fall in love with God once again, in love with the Eucharist, in love with the People of God, in love with the Sacrament of Confession
Pray that they walk in the fear of the Lord every day of their life
Pray for those priests
Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!
Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!
I cannot WAIT to see you tomorrow!!
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