VATICAN - Ave Maria: Mgr Luciano Alimandi - The Year of the Priesthood

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The Year of the Priesthood inaugurated by Pope Benedict XVI is a great occasion of grace, above all for those of us who are priests, to rediscover and to reflect on our vocation as servants of the Lord. “You did not choose me. I chose you” (Jn 15, 16), Jesus tells his first apostles - and his apostles of every epoch -, that the call to the priesthood comes from his own Heart, rather than an initiative of man, it is an initiative of God.

The origin of every authentic vocation is to be found only in Him: “ The Lord called me from birth, from my mother's womb he gave me my name. ” (Is 49, 1). We know, the principal reason for which we are called, we can find always and only in the Word of Jesus. He called us and revealed his Will for us. Saint Paul summaries the Will of God in this way, valid for every Christian, and therefore even more so for every priest who task is to care for the souls entrusted to him: “this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1Ts 4, 3).

A priest should never forget that the goal of his call is precisely holiness. How in fact could we become friends of Jesus without imitating his virtues, starting from the central virtues of his Heart? “Learn from me for I an meek and humble of heart ” (Mt 11, 29). How many Gospel passages underline Jesus' ardent desire for his disciples to reach holiness! “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect ” (Mt 5, 48). If the deepest reason for the call to the priesthood is holiness, then it is imperative for every sacred minister to tend daily towards conversion of life. Priestly holiness, like all holiness of life, must be 'won' day after day despite human frailty and limits.

The way of conversion must never be interrupted because if it is, the spiritual energy of the priest falls dangerously low almost to the point of collapse: and we lack the strength to carry on. “Carry on” means first of all, continuing the battle against our own egoism, sacrificing “self” and my many interests which lead me far from the interests of God. The Gospel places as one essential condition for 'following' Jesus precisely self denial: “If anyone would be my disciple let him take up his cross and follow me ” (Mk 8, 34). The greatest spiritual battle for the priest is to forget self, and to put Jesus before all else. “ But the Lord answered, 'Martha, Martha,' he said, 'you worry and fret about so many things, and yet few are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part, and it is not to be taken from her.' ” (Lk 10, 41-42). The only thing necessary for the priest is Jesus. If we truly wish to imitate Him, the Lord will never leave us he will never let us lose his precious grace

No one can rob a soul of intimacy with Jesus! Only the soul can if it neglects the life of communion with God, nourished by the sacraments and the Word meditated and lived, accompanied by an authentic life of prayer and charity. Friendship with Jesus is the primary aim of the call to the priesthood, on it everything else depends: “ You are my friends if you do what I command you... I have called you friends, 6 because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.” (Jn 15, 14ss). If in the place of the words of Jesus we put our own, if we place our interests before his divine interests, if we aim for goals not inspired by Him, but by the world, then we are no longer his 'friends', we betray his friendship. The ministerial priesthood cannot be deformed, it is the individual minister who loses “taste” (cfr. Mt. 5, 13) and the irradiation of that wonderful 'friendship' which Jesus offers when he calls his apostles to 'be with him' (Mk 3, 14). We can say that we learn to be what we are supposed to be, that is priests, only if we 'stay with Jesus'. “Remain in my love” (Gv 15, 9), this is what Jesus asks of his apostles, the first and all the others. “Remain” is a verb which refers to the mystery of the Eucharist: He remains with us in the Eucharist, so that we may remain in Him!

The Holy Father, Benedict XVI has made the Jesus' call to friendship on of the pillars of his Magisterium. How often has he reminded priests that everything depends on intimacy with God. Without an authentic prayer life culminating in Holy Mass and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, there can be no priestly holiness or true apostolic fecundity. Only if the branch remains united with the vine can it bear fruit, otherwise it will become dry wood (cfr. Jn 15, 4ss). Pope Benedict XVI indicates to sacred ministers precisely the Eucharistic logic as a model for thought and life: “Only from union with Jesus can you draw that spiritual fruitfulness which generates hope in your pastoral ministry. St Leo the Great recalls that "our participation in the Body and Blood of Christ aspires to nothing other than to become what we receive" (Sermo 12, De Passione 3, 7, PL 54). If this is true for every Christian it is especially true for us priests. To become the Eucharist! May precisely this be our constant desire and commitment, so that the offering of the Body and Blood of the Lord which we make on the altar may be accompanied by the sacrifice of our existence. Every day, we draw from the Body and Blood of the Lord that free, pure love which makes us worthy ministers of Christ and witnesses to his joy. This is what the faithful expect of the priest: that is, the example of an authentic devotion to the Eucharist; they like to see him spend long periods of silence and adoration before Jesus as was the practice of the Holy Curé d'Ars, whom we shall remember in a special way during the upcoming Year for Priests.” (Benedict XVI, homily solemnity of Corpus Christi, 11 June 2009).

Who more than the Blessed Virgin Mary, “Woman of the Eucharist” and Mother of Priests, can teach us this Eucharistic logic: how to lose self in order to receive Him; Who more than Mary can help us go ahead on the path of “expropriation” from ourselves so that “Christ may live in us” (cfr. Gal 2, 20)! (Agenzia Fides 24/6/2009; righe 68, parole 1.063)

Istanbul (Agenzia Fides) – “The celebration of the Year of St Paul was certainly a most significant ecclesial event for the different Churches in Turkey. The celebrations brought the different Christian communities and Churches together, making the event a precious occasion for strengthening ecumenism. Paul, the apostle of unity, was recalled as ‘Apostle of all Christians ”: Bishop Luigi Padovese, Vicar Apostolic of Anatolia and President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference assesses the past special ear of St Paul.

Christians in Turkey, the Bishop explained, have rediscovered their identity: “at the same time we can say that the frequent presence of Christian press, pilgrimages of young people, religious and members of other religions, served to promote reflection on the Christian identity which Paul so clearly announced and so strongly defended. In this mainly Muslim country, it is opportune to reflect on our Christian identity, avoiding the risk of false Irenism which signifies the loss of awareness of who we are”.
Bishop Padovese underlines the great value of pilgrimages: “One fact deserves to be highlighted: during this past year, thousands of pilgrims made their way to Tarsus and Antioch. This continual arrival of people, not tourists but pilgrims, had a most positive impact on public opinion and served to change in some, the impression that Christians are secularised, victims of wild consumerism and with no religious values”. “Therefore this Year of St Paul– he concludes – can be said to have been most positive. It is to be hoped that the door opened by so many pilgrims may remain open”.

Rev Mauro Pesce told Fides about celebrations to close the Year of St Paul: 27 June arrival of Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, special envoy of the Holy Father. June 28 at Antioch a solemn ecumenical celebration with the presence of Cardinal Tauran from Rome, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartolomeus and leading members of other Christian Churches and communities.

On 30 June an event to close the Year of St Paul will be held at Tarsus organised by the local Turkish authorities: songs and speeches, a concert in a spirit of interreligious friendship. At the same time in Iskenderun there will be the 13th International Symposium on St Paul, organised by Bishop Padovese and the Pontifical Ateneo Antoniano, with the presence of renowned theologians and lecturers from various European universities. (P.A.) (Agenzia Fides 24/06/2009; righe 31, parole 392)

VATICAN - WORDS OF DOCTRINE: Rev Nicola Bux and Rev Salvatore Vitiello - Year of the Priesthood: identity and mission

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - On 19 June, solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Holy Father Benedict XVI inaugurated, with Vespers in St Peter's Basilica, the Year of the Priesthood. A whole year dedicated to priests and to their sanctification through the prayers of the people of God, called to rediscover the greatness of the gift received from the Lord, indispensable for the very constitution of the Church. The bond between Eucharist and the Church and the bond between the Eucharist and the Priesthood, are the foundation for the bond between the priesthood and the Church: where there are no validly ordained priests there can be no Church, but simply ecclesial communities, whose existence fills us with joy, to the extent in which they safeguard the memory of the Lord and wait for his coming, but which, in actual fact, do not and cannot possess the Lord's sacramental that is, real, presence.

The Holy Father, in his charity as universal Shepherd, addressed a splendid Letter to the Catholic clergy of the world (see Fides 19/6/2009), a letter which every priest should make the object of meditation. A Letter which reveals extraordinary love for Christ and for the Church, which reveals an intimacy with the Mystery which should be proper to every authentically priestly heart .

The occasion for the indiction of the Year of the Priesthood was offered by the 150th anniversary of the death of St Jean Baptist Marie Vianney, the Cure of Ars, patron saint of parish priests and who, during the year, will be declared patron saint of all priests. A figure, when understood, of unimaginable modernity: living in post-Revolution anti-clerical France, parish priest of a rural parish “poor in faith", poor himself in cultural tools and in “structures” and “pastoral plans ”, the Curate was able to literally transform the situation around him, with his prayer, with his fidelity to the ministry, with his radical offering of self to Christ.

The Holy Father's Letter identifies the key to Vianney's holiness, in the word “identity-mission”. In fact every priest is called to progressive identification with Christ which guarantees the fidelity and the fecundity of witness. Identifying oneself with Christ, which has its root in the objective fact of ontological-sacramental configuration, received in the Sacrament of Holy Orders, is also a progressive path of the priest's soul and psyche. Performing the actions of his Lord, repeating His words, growing in love for others, learning day by day to offer his life to the Father, aware of how the Lord works in the reality and the powerful signs which he places, the Priest lives real transparency of the Mystery which has “grasped him” and in which he shares.

Therefore the identity of the priest is not only an objective fact to be sacramentally recognised, it actually becomes, progressively, evidence, both for the holy people of God, which recognises these priests with supernatural intuition, and for the minister himself who affirms, simply and in fidelity to his existence: “ I do not live, Christ lives in me ” (Gal 2,20).