| | | OFFLINE | | Post: 18.521
Post: 1.174 | Registrato il: 28/08/2005
Registrato il: 20/01/2009 | Administratore | Utente Veteran | |
|
VIDEO MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER
TO THE INTERNATIONAL RETREAT FOR PRIESTS
Ars, France, Sept. 27-Oct. 3, 2009
Translated from
This message was delivered in French.
Dear brothers in the priesthood,
You can easily imagine that I would have been extremely happy to be with you for this international retreat for priests on the theme, "The joy of the priest: Consecrated for the salvation of the world".
You are participating in great numbers and you will benefit from the teachings of Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn [retreat master]. I greet him cordially, along with the other preachers, and the Bishop of Belley-Ars, Mons. Guy-Marie Bagnard.
I must content myself with addressing you through this video message, but please believe that through these words, I am speaking to each of you in the most personal manner that I can, because as St. Paul wrote, "I hold you in my heart, you who are all partners with me in grace" (Phil 1,7).
Saint Jean-Marie Vianney underscored the indispensable role of the priest when he said: "A good shepherd, a pastor after the heart of God - that is the greatest treasure that the good God can give a parish, and one of the most precious gifts of divine mercy" (Le curé d’Ars, Pensées (Thoughts), presented by Abbé Bernard Nodet, Desclée de Brouwer, Foi Vivante, 2000, p. 101).
In this Year for Priests, we are all called to explore and rediscover the greatness of the Sacrament which has configured us forever to
Christ the Supreme Priest, and which has 'sanctified us all in the truth" (Jn 17, 19).
Chosen from among men, the priest remains one of them and is called on to serve them by giving them the life of God. It is he "who continues the work of redemption on earth" (Nodet, p. 98).
Our priestly vocation is a treasure which we carry in vessels of clay (Cf. 2 Co 4,7). St. Paul has felicitously expressed the infinite distance that exists between our vocation and the poverty of the responses which we can give to God. From this point of view, there is a secret link between the Pauline Year and the Year for Priests.
We keep in our ears and in the intimacy of our heart the moving and confident exclamation of the Apostle who said: "For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Col 12,10).
Awareness of this weakness opens us to the intimacy of God who gives us strength and joy. The more the priest perseveres in friendship with God, the more he carries on the work of the Redeemer on earth (Cf. Nodet, p.98). The priest is not for himself, he is for everyone (Cf. Nodet, p. 100).
And there lies one of the major challenges of our time. The priest, certainly a man of the Divine Word and of the holy, should more than ever be today a man of joy and hope.
To men who can no longer conceive that God is pure Love, he always affirms that life is worth living, and that Christ gives life all its meaning because he loves mankind, all men.
The religion of the Cure d'Ars was a religion of happiness, not a morbid quest for mortification, as some may believe: "Our happiness is too great: No, we will never understand it" (Nodet, p. 110).
Likewise, he wrote: When we are on the road and we see a belltower, this view should make our hearts beat the way the sight of the roof which houses his beloved makes the husband's heart beat" (Ibid.).
I wish to greet with very special affection those among you who have pastoral responsibility for several parishes and who give themselves without counting the cost in order to maintain the sacramental life in their different communities. The Church's acknowledgment to all of you is immense.
Do not lose courage but continue to pray and to ask others to pray that many young men may respond to the call of Christ call who does not cease to want the number of his apostles to grow in order to harvest his fields.
Dear priests, think of the extreme diversity of the ministries that you exercise in the service of the Church. Think of the great number of Masses that you have celebrated and will celebrate, rendering Christ present every time on the altar. Think of the countless absolutions you have given and will give, allowing sinners to feel relief.
You will then perceive the infinite fecundity of the sacrament of Holy Orders. Your hands, your lips, become, in the space of a moment, the hands and the lips of God. You carry Christ within you. You have, by grace, entered the Holy Trinity.
As the Holy Cure D'Ars said, "If one has faith, then one will see God hidden in the priest like a light behind glass, like wine mixed with water" (Nodet, p. 97).
This consideration should lead to harmonizing the relationship among priests in order to realze that priestly community to which St. Peter exhorted (Cf. 1 Pt 2,9) in order to build the Body of Christ and build you in love (Cf. Eph 4,11-16).
The priest is the man of the future: he who takes seriously the words of Paul, "If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above" (Col 3,1).
What he does on earth is part of the order of means ordained towards the ultimate End. The Mass is the unique point of junction between the means and the End, because it already gives us to contemplate, under the humble appearance of bread and wine, the Body and Blood of He whom we adore for eternity.
The simple but dense statements of the Holy Cure on the Eucharist help us to better perceive the richness of that unique moment of the day when we live through the face-to-face that is vivifying for ourselves and for each of the faithful.
"One will not understand," he wrote, "the happiness there is in saying the Mass until we are in heaven" (Nodet, p. 104). That is why I encourage you to strengthen your faith and that of the faithful in the Sacrament that you celebrate, which is the source of true joy.
The saint of Ars exclaimed: "The priest should have the same joy (as the Apostles) in seeing our Lord whom he holds in his hands" (Ibid.)
In giving thanks for what you are and what you do, I say to you again: "Nothing will ever replace the ministry of priests in the heart of the Church!" (Homily, Mass on Sept. 13, 2005, on the Esplanade of the Invalides, Paris).
Living witnesses of the power of God at work in the weakness of men, consecrated for the salvation of the world, you remain, my dear brothers, chosen by Christ himself in order to be, thanks to him, salt of the earth and light of the world.
May you, during this spiritual retreat, experience profoundly the inexpressible intimacy of being perfectly united to Christ (Saint Augustine, Confessions, III, 6, 11, BA 13, p. 383) so that you may announce his Love all around you and may be completely engaged in the service of sanctifying all the members of the People of God.
Entrusting you to the Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ and of priests, I impart on all of you the apostolic blessing.
About the retreat
Ars, France, Sep 28, 2009 (CNA).- More than 1,200 priests from 75 countries are participating in an international retreat September 27 to October 6 in the hometown of St. Jean Marie Vianney at the Shrine of Ars as part of the Year for Priests.
The theme for the retreat is, “The joy of being a priest: Consecrated for the salvation of the world.” According to Bishop Guy Bagnard of Belley-Ars, the theme expresses “the positive nature of the meeting and the happiness that priests experience” in their vocation.
The shrine’s rector, Fr. Jean Philippe Nault, said, “The Cure of Ars is truly a great brother. Because of his testimony and his life, this saint resonates powerfully in the hearts of priests.”
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna will give the reflections during the retreat, and the daily Masses will be celebrated at the Church of Our Lady of Mercy by the prefect for the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois of Paris, Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley of Boston and Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 30/09/2009 06:45] |