The Eucharist Is at the Center of Priestly Life
September 23rd, 2009 by Rev. Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P.
Again speaking to bishops, Pope Benedict XVI offers this encouragement for priests to put Christ and his Eucharistic Presence at the very center of their lives.
From Monday’s papal address to new bishops:
A presbyter’s mission and, with greater reason, that of a bishop, entails today a lot of work that tends to absorb him continually and totally. The difficulties increase and the incumbencies multiply, also because we are faced with new realities and growing pastoral demands. Nevertheless, attention to the problems of every day and the initiatives directed to leading men on the way of God, must never distract us from our profound and personal union with Christ. To be available to people should not diminish or obfuscate our availability to the Lord. The time that the priest and bishop dedicate to God in prayer is always the best employed, because prayer is the soul of pastoral activity, the “lymph” that gives it strength, it is a support in moments of uncertainty and the inexhaustible source of missionary fervor and fraternal love toward all.
The Eucharist is at the center of priestly life. In the apostolic exhortation “Sacramentum Caritatis” I stressed how “Mass is formative in the deepest sense of the word, since it fosters the priest’s configuration to Christ and strengthens him in his vocation” (No. 80). Therefore, may the Eucharistic celebration illumine your day and that of your priests, imprinting its grace and spiritual influence in sad and joyful, agitated and peaceful moments of action and contemplation. A privileged way of prolonging in the day the mysterious sanctifying action of the Eucharist is to recite devoutly the Liturgy of the Hours, and also Eucharistic adoration, lectio divina and the contemplative prayer of the rosary. The holy Cure d’Ars teaches us how precious are the priest’s empathy with the Eucharistic sacrifice and the education of the faithful in the Eucharistic presence and in communion. With the Word and the Sacraments — I recalled in the Letter to Priests — St. John Mary Vianney edified his people. At the time of appointing him parish priest of Ars, the vicar-general of the Diocese of Belley said: “There is not much love of God in that parish, but you will put it there!” And that parish was transformed.
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