A Prophecy from Sr. Mary Cherubina (d. 1871), A Heroic Soul who Offered Herself for Unworthy Priests
“Make known to all Catholics that God wills that His priests should lead more holy lives, for, although many of them are in the grace of God, yet even they approach the holy Altar with extraordinary coldness, and as if it were an every–day thing. It was not thus that Jesus went to Calvary! He went with a burning love, and priests should offer the Holy Sacrifice with a pure conscience, an immaculate heart, and a lively faith; let them present this Divine Victim to the Eternal Father for the salvation of souls, and especially for the conversion of so many scandalous and apostate priests. They are the crying evil of these days: yet the arms of Jesus are open to receive them. Let them ask of our merciful Jesus, by the merits of His precious Blood, the grace of conversion for these unhappy men, and they will surely obtain this favour when they hold the Divine Victim in their hands. Make known that God is about to send other terrible chastisements upon the world; but they will be lessened if priests offer worthily the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Do not delay to make known all that I have told you.” (pp. 185-186)
“Fill yourself with this love and diffuse it over the world.”
– Jesus to Ven. Louise Margaret after she received Him in Holy Communion, describing her experience as being like “a sponge plunged into water” (p. 23, ‘The Love and Service of God, Infinite Love,’ TAN Books)
#prophecy #priesthood #mass
“Make known to all Catholics that God wills that His priests should lead more holy lives, for, although many of them are in the grace of God, yet even they approach the holy Altar with extraordinary coldness, and as if it were an every–day thing. It was not thus that Jesus went to Calvary! He went with a burning love, and priests should offer the Holy Sacrifice with a pure conscience, an immaculate heart, and a lively faith; let them present this Divine Victim to the Eternal Father for the salvation of souls, and especially for the conversion of so many scandalous and apostate priests. They are the crying evil of these days: yet the arms of Jesus are open to receive them. Let them ask of our merciful Jesus, by the merits of His precious Blood, the grace of conversion for these unhappy men, and they will surely obtain this favour when they hold the Divine Victim in their hands. Make known that God is about to send other terrible chastisements upon the world; but they will be lessened if priests offer worthily the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Do not delay to make known all that I have told you.” (pp. 185-186)
“Fill yourself with this love and diffuse it over the world.”
– Jesus to Ven. Louise Margaret after she received Him in Holy Communion, describing her experience as being like “a sponge plunged into water” (p. 23, ‘The Love and Service of God, Infinite Love,’ TAN Books)
#prophecy #priesthood #mass
"...And you are Christ's" - The Charism of Virginity and Celibate Life
Thomas Dubay, S.M.
#priesthood
Thomas Dubay, S.M.
#priesthood
Prayer for priests
O Almighty and Eternal God, look upon the Face of Thy Christ, and for love of Him Who is the eternal High-priest, have pity on Thy priests. Remember, O most compassionate God, that they are but weak and frail human beings. Stir up in them the grace of their vocation which is in them by the imposition of the Bishop's hands. Keep them close to Thee, lest the enemy prevail against them, so that they may never do anything in the slightest degree unworthy of their sublime vocation.
O Jesus, I pray Thee for Thy faithful and fervent priests; for Thy unfaithful and tepid priests; for Thy priests laboring at home or abroad in distant mission fields; for Thy tempted priests; for Thy lonely and desolate priests; for Thy young priests; for Thy aged priests; for Thy sick priests; for Thy dying priests; for the souls of Thy priests in Purgatory.
But above all I commend to Thee the priests dearest to me: the priest who baptized me; the priests at whose Masses I assisted and who gave me Thy Body and Blood in Holy Communion; the priests who taught and instructed or helped me and encouraged me; all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way, particularly (your priest’s name here). O Jesus, keep them all close to Thy heart, and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity. Amen.
#prayer #priesthood
O Almighty and Eternal God, look upon the Face of Thy Christ, and for love of Him Who is the eternal High-priest, have pity on Thy priests. Remember, O most compassionate God, that they are but weak and frail human beings. Stir up in them the grace of their vocation which is in them by the imposition of the Bishop's hands. Keep them close to Thee, lest the enemy prevail against them, so that they may never do anything in the slightest degree unworthy of their sublime vocation.
O Jesus, I pray Thee for Thy faithful and fervent priests; for Thy unfaithful and tepid priests; for Thy priests laboring at home or abroad in distant mission fields; for Thy tempted priests; for Thy lonely and desolate priests; for Thy young priests; for Thy aged priests; for Thy sick priests; for Thy dying priests; for the souls of Thy priests in Purgatory.
But above all I commend to Thee the priests dearest to me: the priest who baptized me; the priests at whose Masses I assisted and who gave me Thy Body and Blood in Holy Communion; the priests who taught and instructed or helped me and encouraged me; all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way, particularly (your priest’s name here). O Jesus, keep them all close to Thy heart, and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity. Amen.
#prayer #priesthood
On apostolic succession
"Although it may seem that this power of loosing and binding was given by the Lord only to Peter, we must nevertheless know without any doubt that it was given to the other apostles.. Indeed even now the same office is committed to the whole Church in her bishops and priests."
Venerable Bede, Doctor of the Church
"Our apostles knew through Our Lord Jesus Christ that there would be strife for the office of bishop. For this ready, therefore, having received perfect foreknowledge, they appointed those who have already been mentioned and afterwards added the further provision that, if they should die, other approved men should succeed their ministry ."
St. Clement I
"We are in position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the apostles and their successors down to our own times, men who neither knew nor taught anything like what these heretics rave about."
"(It is also incumbent) to hold is suspicion others who depart from primitive succession, and assemble themselves together in any place whatsoever, either as heretics of perverse minds, or as schismatics puffed up and self-pleasing, or again as hypocrites, acting thus for the sake of lucre and vainglory. For all these have fallen from the truth."
St. Irenaeus, Doctor of the Church
"Nor can he be reckoned a bishop, who, succeeding to no one, and despising the evangelical and apostolic tradition, sprang from himself. For he who has not been ordained in the Church can neither have nor hold to the Church in any way."
St. Cyprian
"And last, the very name Catholic, which, not without reason, belongs to this Church alone, in the face of so many heretics, so much so that, although all heretics want to be called 'Catholic', when a stranger inquires where the Catholic Church meets, none of the heretics would dare to point out his own basilica for house."
St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church
"Far be it from me to speak adversely of any of these clergy, who, in succession from the apostles, confect by their sacred word the Body of Christ, and through whose efforts also it is that we are Christians."
St. Jerome, Doctor of the Church
#church #priesthood
"Although it may seem that this power of loosing and binding was given by the Lord only to Peter, we must nevertheless know without any doubt that it was given to the other apostles.. Indeed even now the same office is committed to the whole Church in her bishops and priests."
Venerable Bede, Doctor of the Church
"Our apostles knew through Our Lord Jesus Christ that there would be strife for the office of bishop. For this ready, therefore, having received perfect foreknowledge, they appointed those who have already been mentioned and afterwards added the further provision that, if they should die, other approved men should succeed their ministry ."
St. Clement I
"We are in position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the apostles and their successors down to our own times, men who neither knew nor taught anything like what these heretics rave about."
"(It is also incumbent) to hold is suspicion others who depart from primitive succession, and assemble themselves together in any place whatsoever, either as heretics of perverse minds, or as schismatics puffed up and self-pleasing, or again as hypocrites, acting thus for the sake of lucre and vainglory. For all these have fallen from the truth."
St. Irenaeus, Doctor of the Church
"Nor can he be reckoned a bishop, who, succeeding to no one, and despising the evangelical and apostolic tradition, sprang from himself. For he who has not been ordained in the Church can neither have nor hold to the Church in any way."
St. Cyprian
"And last, the very name Catholic, which, not without reason, belongs to this Church alone, in the face of so many heretics, so much so that, although all heretics want to be called 'Catholic', when a stranger inquires where the Catholic Church meets, none of the heretics would dare to point out his own basilica for house."
St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church
"Far be it from me to speak adversely of any of these clergy, who, in succession from the apostles, confect by their sacred word the Body of Christ, and through whose efforts also it is that we are Christians."
St. Jerome, Doctor of the Church
#church #priesthood
Ecce Verbum
True love of neighbour St. Francis de Sales •"If we love our neighbour because he does us good or because he loves us, and brings us some advantage, honor, or pleasure, that is what we call a love of complacency, and is common to us with the animals. If…
•An example of justice and mercy in meekness
•The sins of priests have destructive effects on the souls of laymen by causing scandal
From The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales, page 189
An ecclesiastic in Blessed Francis’ diocese, had, because of his vicious and scandalous life, been sent to prison. After a few days’ sojourn there he testified the deepest repentance, and with tears and promises of amendment entreated the officers of the prison to allow him to be taken to the Holy Prelate, who had already pardoned many of his offences, that he might at his feet plead again for forgiveness.
This request was at first refused, as the officers considered that his scandalous life deserved punishment, if only as an example to others, and they knew that with Blessed Francis, to see a sinner was to pity and forgive him.
At last, however, they yielded to the priest’s passionate entreaties, and he was taken before his Bishop. Throwing himself on his knees before the Holy Man, he implored mercy, declaring that he would lead a new life, and set an example of all that was edifying, whereas before he had given nothing but scandal.
Blessed Francis on his part knelt down before the culprit, and with many tears, addressed these remarkable words to him:
I, too, ask you to have pity upon me, and upon all of us who are priests in this diocese, upon the Church, and upon the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religion, the honour of which you are ruining by your scandalous life. For that life gives occasion to the adversaries of our Faith, who are always on the watch like dragons to detect our slightest failings, to condemn us. For a priest to sin, I tell you, is to give occasion to devils to mock at the lives of our clergy, and to blaspheme our Holy Faith.
I ask you also to have pity on yourself, and on your own soul which you are losing for all eternity, and to seek anew God’s favour. I exhort you in the name of Jesus Christ to return to God by a true repentance. I conjure you to do this by all that is most holy, and sacred in Heaven, or on earth, by the Blood of Jesus Christ which you profane, by the loving kindness of the Saviour, whom you crucify afresh, by the Spirit of Grace against whom you are rebelling.
These remonstrances, or rather the Spirit of God speaking by the mouth of this zealous Pastor, had such effect that the guilty man was by this change of the Right Hand of the Most High converted into a perfectly different being, and became as notable an example of virtue as he had been an occasion of scandal.
#priesthood
•The sins of priests have destructive effects on the souls of laymen by causing scandal
From The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales, page 189
An ecclesiastic in Blessed Francis’ diocese, had, because of his vicious and scandalous life, been sent to prison. After a few days’ sojourn there he testified the deepest repentance, and with tears and promises of amendment entreated the officers of the prison to allow him to be taken to the Holy Prelate, who had already pardoned many of his offences, that he might at his feet plead again for forgiveness.
This request was at first refused, as the officers considered that his scandalous life deserved punishment, if only as an example to others, and they knew that with Blessed Francis, to see a sinner was to pity and forgive him.
At last, however, they yielded to the priest’s passionate entreaties, and he was taken before his Bishop. Throwing himself on his knees before the Holy Man, he implored mercy, declaring that he would lead a new life, and set an example of all that was edifying, whereas before he had given nothing but scandal.
Blessed Francis on his part knelt down before the culprit, and with many tears, addressed these remarkable words to him:
I, too, ask you to have pity upon me, and upon all of us who are priests in this diocese, upon the Church, and upon the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religion, the honour of which you are ruining by your scandalous life. For that life gives occasion to the adversaries of our Faith, who are always on the watch like dragons to detect our slightest failings, to condemn us. For a priest to sin, I tell you, is to give occasion to devils to mock at the lives of our clergy, and to blaspheme our Holy Faith.
I ask you also to have pity on yourself, and on your own soul which you are losing for all eternity, and to seek anew God’s favour. I exhort you in the name of Jesus Christ to return to God by a true repentance. I conjure you to do this by all that is most holy, and sacred in Heaven, or on earth, by the Blood of Jesus Christ which you profane, by the loving kindness of the Saviour, whom you crucify afresh, by the Spirit of Grace against whom you are rebelling.
These remonstrances, or rather the Spirit of God speaking by the mouth of this zealous Pastor, had such effect that the guilty man was by this change of the Right Hand of the Most High converted into a perfectly different being, and became as notable an example of virtue as he had been an occasion of scandal.
#priesthood
Fatherhood of the Priest.pdf
1.9 MB
The Fatherhood of the Priest
by Thomas E. D. Hennessy, O.P.
Books on spiritual fatherhood/paternity are very rare.
Thomas E. D. Hennessy, O.P., “The Fatherhood of the Priest,” The Thomist: A Speculative Quarterly Review 10, no. 3 (1947): 271–306, https://doi.org/10.1353/tho.1947.0016.
is a condensed version of his 1950 Angelicum dissertation De paternitate sacerdotis, which appears here in English as The Fatherhood of the Priest; unlike the article, the book-length version contains another section on the praxis / practical/pastoral application of spiritual fatherhood.
Elaborating on Eph. 3:15 ("…of whom all paternity in heaven and earth is named"), he describes the various degrees of participation in fatherhood:
divine fatherhood within the Godhead
fatherhood of divine adoption
God's fatherhood of natural creatures
human fatherhood
fatherhood of human adoption
#priesthood
by Thomas E. D. Hennessy, O.P.
Books on spiritual fatherhood/paternity are very rare.
Thomas E. D. Hennessy, O.P., “The Fatherhood of the Priest,” The Thomist: A Speculative Quarterly Review 10, no. 3 (1947): 271–306, https://doi.org/10.1353/tho.1947.0016.
is a condensed version of his 1950 Angelicum dissertation De paternitate sacerdotis, which appears here in English as The Fatherhood of the Priest; unlike the article, the book-length version contains another section on the praxis / practical/pastoral application of spiritual fatherhood.
Elaborating on Eph. 3:15 ("…of whom all paternity in heaven and earth is named"), he describes the various degrees of participation in fatherhood:
divine fatherhood within the Godhead
fatherhood of divine adoption
God's fatherhood of natural creatures
human fatherhood
fatherhood of human adoption
#priesthood
Ecce Verbum
Communion in the Early Church They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Acts 2:42 “They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.” Acts 2:46 The celebration…
Melchizedek and Eucharist
*Melchizedek is notable in a number of ways; for instance, he is the first person in the Bible who is explicitly called a priest.
Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand." Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything. (Gen. 14:18-20 NIV)
The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.
Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.
The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. (Psalm 110:1-4 KJV)
This "King Melchizedek of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham as he was returning from defeating the kings and blessed him"; and to him Abraham apportioned "one-tenth of everything." His name, in the first place, means "king of righteousness"; next he is also king of Salem, that is, "king of peace." Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever. See how great he is! (Heb. 7:1-4a NRSV)
*According to one common Jewish tradition, Melchizedek was Shem, son of Noah; 2 Enoch makes him Noah's nephew. Christians seem largely not to have been interested in these legends, although I'm told that Jerome somewhere mentions them. Philo interprets Melchizedek as a symbol of the Logos, which in a way we find in the book of Hebrews, as well, and the latter, of course, is the primary influence on what Christians have thought about him. The second thing that caught their attention was the bread and wine (in some modern translations bread and raisin-cakes), which has generally been read as a type of the Eucharist; Clement of Alexandria seems to be the first person to have discussed this explicitly:
Righteousness is peace of life and a well-conditioned state, to which the Lord dismissed her when He said, "Depart into peace." For Salem is, by interpretation, peace; of which our Saviour is enrolled King, as Moses says, Melchizedek king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who gave bread and wine, furnishing consecrated food for a type of the Eucharist. And Melchizedek is interpreted "righteous king;" and the name is a synonym for righteousness and peace.
*Cyprian is a major influence on this line of thought in the West; from his Letter 62 to Caecilius:
Also in the priest Melchizedek we see prefigured the sacrament of the sacrifice of the Lord, according to what divine Scripture testifies, and says,
"And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine." Now he was a priest of the most high God, and blessed Abraham. And that Melchizedek bore a type of Christ, the Holy Spirit declares in the Psalms, saying from the person of the Father to the Son: "Before the morning star I begot You; You are a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek; " which order is assuredly this coming from that sacrifice and thence descending; that Melchizedek was a priest of the most high God; that he offered wine and bread; that he blessed Abraham. For who is more a priest of the most high God than our Lord Jesus Christ, who offered a sacrifice to God the Father, and offered that very same thing which Melchizedek had offered, that is, bread and wine, to wit, His body and blood?
source
#eucharist #priesthood
*Melchizedek is notable in a number of ways; for instance, he is the first person in the Bible who is explicitly called a priest.
Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand." Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything. (Gen. 14:18-20 NIV)
The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.
Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.
The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. (Psalm 110:1-4 KJV)
This "King Melchizedek of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham as he was returning from defeating the kings and blessed him"; and to him Abraham apportioned "one-tenth of everything." His name, in the first place, means "king of righteousness"; next he is also king of Salem, that is, "king of peace." Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever. See how great he is! (Heb. 7:1-4a NRSV)
*According to one common Jewish tradition, Melchizedek was Shem, son of Noah; 2 Enoch makes him Noah's nephew. Christians seem largely not to have been interested in these legends, although I'm told that Jerome somewhere mentions them. Philo interprets Melchizedek as a symbol of the Logos, which in a way we find in the book of Hebrews, as well, and the latter, of course, is the primary influence on what Christians have thought about him. The second thing that caught their attention was the bread and wine (in some modern translations bread and raisin-cakes), which has generally been read as a type of the Eucharist; Clement of Alexandria seems to be the first person to have discussed this explicitly:
Righteousness is peace of life and a well-conditioned state, to which the Lord dismissed her when He said, "Depart into peace." For Salem is, by interpretation, peace; of which our Saviour is enrolled King, as Moses says, Melchizedek king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who gave bread and wine, furnishing consecrated food for a type of the Eucharist. And Melchizedek is interpreted "righteous king;" and the name is a synonym for righteousness and peace.
*Cyprian is a major influence on this line of thought in the West; from his Letter 62 to Caecilius:
Also in the priest Melchizedek we see prefigured the sacrament of the sacrifice of the Lord, according to what divine Scripture testifies, and says,
"And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine." Now he was a priest of the most high God, and blessed Abraham. And that Melchizedek bore a type of Christ, the Holy Spirit declares in the Psalms, saying from the person of the Father to the Son: "Before the morning star I begot You; You are a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek; " which order is assuredly this coming from that sacrifice and thence descending; that Melchizedek was a priest of the most high God; that he offered wine and bread; that he blessed Abraham. For who is more a priest of the most high God than our Lord Jesus Christ, who offered a sacrifice to God the Father, and offered that very same thing which Melchizedek had offered, that is, bread and wine, to wit, His body and blood?
source
#eucharist #priesthood
www.newadvent.org
CHURCH FATHERS: The Stromata (Clement of Alexandria)
Featuring the Church Fathers, Catholic Encyclopedia, Summa Theologica and more.
Contemplation and chastity
"There is finally a fourth consideration, which this time concerns contemplation itself, I say Christian contemplation, and which furnishes in relation to the latter a certain nuance or attenuation to the statement (however valid it still remains) that the contemplative life in itself does not require chastity of the body.
Christian contemplation in reality is inseparably the contemplation of the uncreated Trinity and of Jesus, God and man; the humanity of Christ -- that humanity which belongs to the second divine Person, and all of whose properties are therefore also attributes of this divine Person Himself -- is always present in it in a manifest or hidden manner, and cannot be detached from it. That to which the Christian contemplative has his eyes constantly attached is, at the same time as the one and triune God, a man perfectly chaste, born of the most chaste of Virgins, and who Himself is God.
How would the Christian who aspires to contemplation not feel himself drawn also to a life of continence or of chastity -- not, once more, as to a necessary condition (except, for some, because of the religious state), but as to something which better accords with his desires?
Moreover, there is in Christian contemplation a certain innocence of approach, a sweetness and delicacy of the hands, if I may venture to speak thus, a certain candid demeanor and a certain matchless simplicity, and also a certain winged liberty which familiarity with the Holy Spirit gives, and that intimacy with the divine Persons and the heart of Jesus for which without a perfect purity the ardor of love does not suffice -- which, without requiring it however, are, so to speak, connatural with chastity of the body."
source -Jacques Maritain's Notebooks
#chastity #priesthood
"There is finally a fourth consideration, which this time concerns contemplation itself, I say Christian contemplation, and which furnishes in relation to the latter a certain nuance or attenuation to the statement (however valid it still remains) that the contemplative life in itself does not require chastity of the body.
Christian contemplation in reality is inseparably the contemplation of the uncreated Trinity and of Jesus, God and man; the humanity of Christ -- that humanity which belongs to the second divine Person, and all of whose properties are therefore also attributes of this divine Person Himself -- is always present in it in a manifest or hidden manner, and cannot be detached from it. That to which the Christian contemplative has his eyes constantly attached is, at the same time as the one and triune God, a man perfectly chaste, born of the most chaste of Virgins, and who Himself is God.
How would the Christian who aspires to contemplation not feel himself drawn also to a life of continence or of chastity -- not, once more, as to a necessary condition (except, for some, because of the religious state), but as to something which better accords with his desires?
Moreover, there is in Christian contemplation a certain innocence of approach, a sweetness and delicacy of the hands, if I may venture to speak thus, a certain candid demeanor and a certain matchless simplicity, and also a certain winged liberty which familiarity with the Holy Spirit gives, and that intimacy with the divine Persons and the heart of Jesus for which without a perfect purity the ardor of love does not suffice -- which, without requiring it however, are, so to speak, connatural with chastity of the body."
source -Jacques Maritain's Notebooks
#chastity #priesthood
Ecce Verbum
Melchizedek and Eucharist *Melchizedek is notable in a number of ways; for instance, he is the first person in the Bible who is explicitly called a priest. Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he…
The priesthood of Christ is derived from sacrifice
"In what was done by Melchisedech the priest we recognize a type of the Sacrament of the Lord's Sacrifice. For thus it is written in the writings of God: And Melchisedech, King of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, for he was the priest of the Most High God, and he blessed Abraham. Concerning the fact that Melchisedech was a type of Christ, the Holy Ghost himself doth testify in the Psalms, where the First Person of the Holy Trinity (that is, the Father) is set before us as saying unto the Second Person (that is, the Son): Before the day-star have I begotten thee: Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedech. And doubtless the sameness of order in the priesthood of Christ and of Melchisedech is derived from sacrifice, and proceedeth from this, namely; that Melchisedech was the priest of the Most High God; that he offered bread and wine; and that he blessed Abraham.
For who is so truly the priest of the Most High God as is our Lord Jesus Christ? And he it is that hath made an offering unto God the Father, and the same offering that Melchisedech made, Bread and Wine, that is to say, his own Flesh and his own Blood. And so far as Abraham is concerned, the blessing which Melchisedech gave him so long ago belongeth also to us. For if Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness, verily then, whosoever believeth God and liveth by faith, the same is found righteous, and is made manifest unto us as one who hath thereby attained the blessing given faithful Abraham; which same is also justified as the Apostle Paul proveth, where he saith: Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness; know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham; and the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
To the end therefore, that this blessing of Abraham by Melchisedech the priest might be duly solemnized, it was preceded (as we are told in Genesis) by a symbolic sacrifice consisting of bread and wine. Completing and fulfilling this sacrifice, our Lord Jesus Christ offered up bread, and a cup of wine mingled with water. And thus he who came, (not to destroy, but to fulfil, the Law and the Prophets,) utterly satisfied all the implications prefigured in the oblation made by Melchisedech. Through Solomon's Proverbs also did the Holy Ghost clearly foreshadow, as it were in a parable, the Lord's Sacrifice, saying: Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out seven pillars: referring thus to the Church. In the same passage he pointeth to the victim slain, and the bread and wine, saying: She hath killed her beasts, she hath mingled her wine. He pointeth to the altar in the words: She hath also furnished her table. And to the apostolic priesthood in the words: She hath sent forth her servants, she crieth upon the highest places of the city, saying, Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither unto me; as for them that want understanding, she saith to them, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled for you."
From the letter to Caecilius by St. Cyprian
#eucharist #priesthood
"In what was done by Melchisedech the priest we recognize a type of the Sacrament of the Lord's Sacrifice. For thus it is written in the writings of God: And Melchisedech, King of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, for he was the priest of the Most High God, and he blessed Abraham. Concerning the fact that Melchisedech was a type of Christ, the Holy Ghost himself doth testify in the Psalms, where the First Person of the Holy Trinity (that is, the Father) is set before us as saying unto the Second Person (that is, the Son): Before the day-star have I begotten thee: Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedech. And doubtless the sameness of order in the priesthood of Christ and of Melchisedech is derived from sacrifice, and proceedeth from this, namely; that Melchisedech was the priest of the Most High God; that he offered bread and wine; and that he blessed Abraham.
For who is so truly the priest of the Most High God as is our Lord Jesus Christ? And he it is that hath made an offering unto God the Father, and the same offering that Melchisedech made, Bread and Wine, that is to say, his own Flesh and his own Blood. And so far as Abraham is concerned, the blessing which Melchisedech gave him so long ago belongeth also to us. For if Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness, verily then, whosoever believeth God and liveth by faith, the same is found righteous, and is made manifest unto us as one who hath thereby attained the blessing given faithful Abraham; which same is also justified as the Apostle Paul proveth, where he saith: Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness; know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham; and the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
To the end therefore, that this blessing of Abraham by Melchisedech the priest might be duly solemnized, it was preceded (as we are told in Genesis) by a symbolic sacrifice consisting of bread and wine. Completing and fulfilling this sacrifice, our Lord Jesus Christ offered up bread, and a cup of wine mingled with water. And thus he who came, (not to destroy, but to fulfil, the Law and the Prophets,) utterly satisfied all the implications prefigured in the oblation made by Melchisedech. Through Solomon's Proverbs also did the Holy Ghost clearly foreshadow, as it were in a parable, the Lord's Sacrifice, saying: Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out seven pillars: referring thus to the Church. In the same passage he pointeth to the victim slain, and the bread and wine, saying: She hath killed her beasts, she hath mingled her wine. He pointeth to the altar in the words: She hath also furnished her table. And to the apostolic priesthood in the words: She hath sent forth her servants, she crieth upon the highest places of the city, saying, Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither unto me; as for them that want understanding, she saith to them, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled for you."
From the letter to Caecilius by St. Cyprian
#eucharist #priesthood
Ecce Verbum
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Priestly Celibacy_ Theological Foundations - Selin, Gary.pdf
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Priestly Celibacy
Theological Foundations
Gary Selin
Foreword by J. Francis Cardinal Stafford
more:
🔗Augustine on marriage, monasticism and the community of the Church
🔗Apostolic origins of priestly celibacy
🔗John Cassian on Augustine's theology of virginity and monastic life
🔗 Augustine on continence and chastity
🔗Augustine on celibate and married state
🔗Contemplation and chastity
#priesthood
Theological Foundations
Gary Selin
Foreword by J. Francis Cardinal Stafford
more:
🔗Augustine on marriage, monasticism and the community of the Church
🔗Apostolic origins of priestly celibacy
🔗John Cassian on Augustine's theology of virginity and monastic life
🔗 Augustine on continence and chastity
🔗Augustine on celibate and married state
🔗Contemplation and chastity
#priesthood
Ecce Verbum
The priesthood of Christ is derived from sacrifice "In what was done by Melchisedech the priest we recognize a type of the Sacrament of the Lord's Sacrifice. For thus it is written in the writings of God: And Melchisedech, King of Salem, brought forth bread…
The true priesthood of the New Covenant
Jesus Christ, the High Priest, established and left in his Church the true priestly office, which belongs only to persons possessing the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
Priestly office is an authority whose purpose is to sanctify the faithful and to perform divine worship on behalf of the entire Church by offering the Holy Mass and administering the Holy Sacraments.
The priestly office is transmitted through the Sacrament of Holy Orders (Sacramentum Ordinis), hence it is also called the power of orders. This power, by Christ's institution, is possessed by deacons, priests and bishops, but to an unequal degree. Bishops have full priestly authority. Therefore, priestly authority does not come from people or even from an ecclesiastical regulation, but from Christ and the Sacrament instituted by Him, which impresses on ordained persons an indelible character giving them a certain degree of priestly authority.
The priesthood resulting from the Sacrament of Holy Orders (hence often called the Sacrament of Holy Orders, which is a correct, although imprecise name) is clearly different in essence from the so-called common priesthood of the faithful resulting from the Sacrament of Baptism.
Pius XII recalled this in his encyclical on the liturgy (Mediator Dei): "There were those who joined in the errors already condemned. They teach that in the New Testament the name of priesthood means only that which falls to all who are regenerated by the waters of Baptism..."
The pope further explained that the lay faithful do not have true priestly power, which belongs only to people who have the Sacrament of Holy Orders. Only priests act in the place of Christ during the Eucharist and are therefore intermediaries between the people and God.
Only ordained priests and bishops ,as true priests, have the power to offer the Holy Sacrifice and this cannot be changed even by a regulation of the Church, because it results from the essence of the Sacrament, of which the Church is the minister, not the creator or ruler.
The Eucharistic Sacrifice is the center of Christian life because it is a perfect act of public worship, a true sacrifice making present the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, and, moreover, it contains Christ himself, really and substantially present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
This unique presence of Christ in the Eucharist is now incomparably greater than other types of God's presence in the world, and it takes place thanks to the powers granted to the priest. This presence also makes the priest's celebration of Mass a true sacrifice.
The existence of a true priesthood is confirmed by the Council of Trent: "When, therefore, in the New Covenant the Church received the visible, holy sacrifice of the Eucharist by the Lord's institution, it must also be confessed that in her there is a new, visible and external priesthood."
However, in the canons on the Sacrament of Holy Orders, the Council of Trent defines dogmatically: "1. If anyone says that in the New Covenant there is no visible and external priesthood [sacerdotium visible et externum] (...) - let him be anathema."
But the Church had already used the concept of priesthood as related to the Sacrament of Holy Orders. The Council of Florence (1439), describing the Sacrament of Holy Orders, teaches: "The form of priesthood [Forma sacerdotii] is this: Accept the power of offering sacrifice in the Church..."
Pius XI, in his encyclical on the Catholic priesthood (Ad Catholici Sacerdotii), teaches that priestly authority is "entrusted to the priest by a separate sacrament" and emphasises its dignity: "The priest is, as it were, an instrument in the hand of the Saviour to carry on his work in time".
In the same document, the Pope lists priestly functions: "The priest is the official mediator with God for all people (...) The priest is the dispenser of God's graces, which flow from the Sacraments as from a source (...) Moreover, the priest should teach the truths of faith."
🔗part 2 and sources
#priesthood
Jesus Christ, the High Priest, established and left in his Church the true priestly office, which belongs only to persons possessing the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
Priestly office is an authority whose purpose is to sanctify the faithful and to perform divine worship on behalf of the entire Church by offering the Holy Mass and administering the Holy Sacraments.
The priestly office is transmitted through the Sacrament of Holy Orders (Sacramentum Ordinis), hence it is also called the power of orders. This power, by Christ's institution, is possessed by deacons, priests and bishops, but to an unequal degree. Bishops have full priestly authority. Therefore, priestly authority does not come from people or even from an ecclesiastical regulation, but from Christ and the Sacrament instituted by Him, which impresses on ordained persons an indelible character giving them a certain degree of priestly authority.
The priesthood resulting from the Sacrament of Holy Orders (hence often called the Sacrament of Holy Orders, which is a correct, although imprecise name) is clearly different in essence from the so-called common priesthood of the faithful resulting from the Sacrament of Baptism.
Pius XII recalled this in his encyclical on the liturgy (Mediator Dei): "There were those who joined in the errors already condemned. They teach that in the New Testament the name of priesthood means only that which falls to all who are regenerated by the waters of Baptism..."
The pope further explained that the lay faithful do not have true priestly power, which belongs only to people who have the Sacrament of Holy Orders. Only priests act in the place of Christ during the Eucharist and are therefore intermediaries between the people and God.
Only ordained priests and bishops ,as true priests, have the power to offer the Holy Sacrifice and this cannot be changed even by a regulation of the Church, because it results from the essence of the Sacrament, of which the Church is the minister, not the creator or ruler.
The Eucharistic Sacrifice is the center of Christian life because it is a perfect act of public worship, a true sacrifice making present the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, and, moreover, it contains Christ himself, really and substantially present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
This unique presence of Christ in the Eucharist is now incomparably greater than other types of God's presence in the world, and it takes place thanks to the powers granted to the priest. This presence also makes the priest's celebration of Mass a true sacrifice.
The existence of a true priesthood is confirmed by the Council of Trent: "When, therefore, in the New Covenant the Church received the visible, holy sacrifice of the Eucharist by the Lord's institution, it must also be confessed that in her there is a new, visible and external priesthood."
However, in the canons on the Sacrament of Holy Orders, the Council of Trent defines dogmatically: "1. If anyone says that in the New Covenant there is no visible and external priesthood [sacerdotium visible et externum] (...) - let him be anathema."
But the Church had already used the concept of priesthood as related to the Sacrament of Holy Orders. The Council of Florence (1439), describing the Sacrament of Holy Orders, teaches: "The form of priesthood [Forma sacerdotii] is this: Accept the power of offering sacrifice in the Church..."
Pius XI, in his encyclical on the Catholic priesthood (Ad Catholici Sacerdotii), teaches that priestly authority is "entrusted to the priest by a separate sacrament" and emphasises its dignity: "The priest is, as it were, an instrument in the hand of the Saviour to carry on his work in time".
In the same document, the Pope lists priestly functions: "The priest is the official mediator with God for all people (...) The priest is the dispenser of God's graces, which flow from the Sacraments as from a source (...) Moreover, the priest should teach the truths of faith."
🔗part 2 and sources
#priesthood