Shepherds of Christ Newsletter Book I
   

   

Selected Writings On Spirituality

— For All People —

As Published in “Shepherds of Christ” Newsletter for Priests

Rev. Edward J. Carter, S.J., Editor

Shepherds of Christ Publications Morrow, Ohio

   

  

Imprimi Potest: Bradley M. Schaeffer, S.J.

Nihil Obstat: Rev. Robert J. Buschmiller

Imprimatur: Carl K. Moeddel Auxiliary Bishop Archdiocese of Cincinnati

  

  

In conformity with the decrees of Pope Urban VIII, the Publisher recognizes and accepts that the final authority regarding the messages of private revelation rests with the Holy See of Rome, to whose judgment we willingly submit.

—The Publisher

  

  

This book is published by Shepherds of Christ Publications, a subsidiary of Shepherds of Christ Ministries, a tax exempt religious public charitable association organized to foster devotion to the Two Hearts, the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

For additional copies, write to:

Shepherds of Christ Publications P.O. Box 193 Morrow, Ohio 45152-0193

  

  

Acknowledgements

The editor acknowledges the use of certain book excerpts as follows: From The Jerusalem Bible by Alexander Jones, ed., © 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd. and Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Used by permission of Doubleday, a division of Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. From the English translation of The Liturgy of the Hours © 1974, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. From The Documents of Vatican II, reprinted with permission of America Press, Inc., 106 West 56th Street, New York, New York 10019, © 1966. All rights reserved. From Called to Serve, Called to Lead by Archbishop Joseph Bernardin, © 1981 by St. Anthony Messenger Press, 1615 Republic Street, Cincinnati, OH 45210. Reprinted with permission.

  

  

Copyright © 1997 Shepherds of Christ Publications

ISBN: 1-887572-02-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the publisher. For information contact Shepherds of Christ Publications.

First Printing: April, 1997

  

  

Contents

July/August 1994

September/October 1994

November/December 1994

January/February 1995

March/April 1995

May/June 1995

July/August 1995

September/October 1995

November/December 1995

January/February 1996

March/April 1996

May/June 1996

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Introduction

The pages which follow are those which made up the first twelve issues of the spirituality newsletter for priests entitled Shepherds of Christ. We think it valuable that priests are able to have all these newsletters available in one, compact volume. As we state in the Editor’s Corner column of the first issue:

The purpose of this spirituality newsletter for priests is to offer yet another aid to priests in the development of their spiritual lives. We live in very critical times for both the Church and the world. We priests, by our very vocation, are in a most advantageous position to make an extremely significant contribution to the betterment of both Church and world. And the more we ourselves grow spiritually according to the Gospel message, the more we are able to help the Church and the world progress according to God’s will.

The subtitle of this book is Selected Writings on Spirituality—for All People—as Published in Shepherds of Christ Newsletter for Priests. Consequently, we offer the following pages to all. Although some entries are aimed specifically at priests, the overwhelming percentage of the material can hopefully be used by all those interested in growth in the spiritual life.

Before readers progress to the pages of the various issues of the newsletters, we think it valuable to offer a brief overview of one’s spiritual journey in Christ.

An Overview of the Spiritual Life

The Christian life is rooted in the great event of the Incarnation. We must consequently always focus our gaze upon Christ, realizing that everything the Father wishes to tell us has been summed up in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. It only remains for us, then, to strive to understand with greater insight the inexhaustible truth of the Word Incarnate (Heb 1:1-2).

What was the condition of the human race at the time of Christ’s coming? In some ways, people were much the same as we are today. There were those just being born into this world of human drama. There were those who, in death, were leaving it, some of whom had grasped but little of life’s meaning. There were those who were healthy and vigorous. There were those who were sick and lame. Some especially felt the burdens, the grief, the suffering of the human condition. Others were ebullient and desired all the pleasures life could provide. There was some good being accomplished. Immorality, however, was rampant. What St. Paul tells us concerning the time that immediately followed Christ’s existence certainly could also be applied to the time of His entrance into the world. It is, in short, an ugly picture that St. Paul depicts for us (Rom 1:22-32).

Into such a depraved condition Jesus entered, with a full and generous Heart, to lead the human race from the depths of sinfulness to the vibrant richness of a new life in Himself. Through His enfleshment, this Christ became the focal point of all history. The authentic hopes and dreams of the human family, now so overshadowed by the ugliness of sin, came converging upon this Christ. He would gather them up in Himself, give them a new luster and brilliance and dynamism, and would lead the human family back to the Father in the Holy Spirit.

Christ was radically to release us from the dominion of sin and elevate us to a new level of existence. This life Christ has given us is not a type of superstructure which is erected atop human existence. Although nature and grace are distinct, they do not lie side by side as separate entities. Rather, grace permeates nature. The Christian is one graced person. The Christian is one who has been raised up, caught up, into a deeper form of life in Christ Jesus. Nothing that is authentically human in the life of the Christian has been excluded from this new existence. Whatever is really human in the life of the Christian is meant to be an expression of the Christ-life. The simple but deep joys of family life, the wonderment at nature’s beauty, the warm embrace of a mother for her child, the agony of crucial decision making, the success or frustration that is experienced in one’s work, the joy of being well received by others, and the heartache of being misunderstood—all these experiences are intended to be caught up in Christ and made more deeply human because of Him.

Jesus has come, then, not to destroy anything that is authentically human, but to perfect it by leading it to a graced fulfillment. The more God-like we become through Christ, the more human we become.

We, through our incorporation into Christ which occurs at Baptism, are meant to relive the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. In doing so, we are not only accomplishing our own salvation, but we are assisting in the salvation of others also. The Incarnation continues all the time. Christ, or course, is the one Who fundamentally continues the Incarnation. But He enlists our help. The world no longer sees Jesus, no longer is able to reach out and touch Him. We are the ones who now, in some way, make Christ visible and tangible. In union with the invisible, glorified Christ, and depending on Him as our source of life, we continue the Incarnation in its visible and temporal dimensions. This is our great privilege. This is our great responsibility.

The Christian is initiated into the mystery of Christ, into his or her role in prolonging the Incarnation, through Baptism (Rom 6:3-4).

It is not sufficient, however, that we be incorporated into Christ through Baptism. All forms of life require nourishment. So, too, our life in Christ must be continually nourished. How can we continually keep in contact with Christ? There are various ways. We contact Christ in a most special way through the liturgy, above all in the Eucharistic liturgy. Through our most special and most personal meeting with Jesus in the Mass, we are more deeply incorporated into Christ. Also, we should remember that all the sacraments make up part of the Church’s liturgy.

The reading of Scripture provides another special opportunity for meeting Jesus. This is true for both Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament prefigures the New Testament and leads to it. It is obvious, however, that we meet Christ especially in the pages of the New Testament. How true it is to say that not to be familiar with Scripture is not to know Jesus properly. We should resolve to read from Scripture daily.

We also meet Jesus in our interaction with others. Everyone we meet, everyone we serve, is in the image of Jesus. We have to take the means to grow in this awareness. If I truly believe that everyone has been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, how should I treat everyone?

These, then, are some of the ways we keep in contact with Jesus. Common to the various ways of meeting Jesus is a certain degree of prayerful reflection. Our contact with Jesus in the liturgy, in Scripture, and in our interaction with others, and so forth, will not be all that it should be unless we are persons of prayer. The light and strength of prayer enables us to keep in contact with Jesus as we should.

We live out our Christ-life in an atmosphere of love. Indeed, the life Jesus has given us is centered in love. It has its origins in the mysterious love of God (Jn 3:16).

Our new life in Jesus has arisen out of God’s fathomless love. Christ, in His descent into human flesh, has established a milieu of love. The life He came to give can flourish only in the framework of love. Indeed, we can summarize the meaning of the Christian life by stating that it is our loving response to God’s love. The pierced Heart of Jesus, this Heart which shed its last drop of blood in the greatest love for each one of us, is the symbol of God’s tremendous love for us. Christ’s Heart also calls us to respond by giving ourselves in love to God and neighbor. Yes, Jesus invites us to respond to God’s love by giving ourselves in love to Him in an ever closer union. The more closely we are united to Him, the greater is our capacity to love God and neighbor. The more closely we are united with Jesus, the more closely He unites us to the Father in the Holy Spirit, with Mary our Mother at our side.

May the ideas contained in this brief overview of the spiritual life be deepened and expanded through the reading of the following pages.

Fr. Edward J. Carter, S.J.
Professor of Theology, Xavier University,
and Spiritual Director of Shepherds of Christ Ministries

  

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Shepherds of Christ

A Spiritual Newsletter for Priests

JULY/AUGUST 1994

Chief Shepherd of the Flock

I am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd is one who lays down His life for His sheep. The hired man, since he is not the shepherd and the sheep do not belong to him, abandons the sheep and runs away as soon as he sees a wolf coming, and then the wolf attacks and scatters the sheep. This is because he is only a hired man and has no concern for the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father. And I lay down My life for My sheep. (Jn 10: 11-151).

He hung upon a cross on a hill called Calvary. Death was near. How much Jesus had already suffered! He had been brutally scourged. Much of His sacred body was a bloody, open wound. He had been derisively crowned with thorns. In a terribly weakened condition, He carried the heavy cross to the hill of Golgotha. There He was stripped of His garments and mercilessly nailed to the cross. After all this brutal and agonizing suffering, Jesus finally died.

Truly, the Good Shepherd had laid down His life for His sheep. That magnificent Heart, overflowing with love for His Father and all of us, had beat Its last:

“It was Preparation Day, and to prevent the bodies remaining on the cross during the sabbath—since that sabbath was a day of special solemnity—the Jews asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken away. Consequently the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with him and then of the other. When they came to Jesus, they found He was already dead, and so instead of breaking His legs one of the soldiers pierced His side with a lance. And immediately there came out blood and water.” (Jn 19: 31-34).

Indeed, from the pierced Heart of Christ the Church with her sacraments was born. Two of these sacraments, the Eucharist and Baptism, are symbolized by the blood and water flowing from Christ’s side. The sacrament of Orders was, of course, also born from the pierced Heart of Christ. We who are priests can never adequately thank Jesus for allowing us to receive this great and most special sacrament. The best way we can try to thank Him, though, is to utilize our priesthood to the fullest. We priests have the great privilege and the great responsibility of being special companions of the Chief Shepherd of the flock, Jesus Himself.

Jesus laid down His life for His sheep. Being shepherds of the Chief Shepherd we, too, are called to lay down our lives for the flock. Relatively few priests in the course of the Church’s history have been called to lay down their lives in physical martyrdom. All, though, have been and are called to lay down their lives for the flock by giving themselves in loving service according to the Father’s will.

We are effective shepherds to the extent we are united with Christ. Let’s resolve each day of our priestly existence to utilize all the means available to deepen our union with Jesus, Chief Shepherd of the flock.

  

Editor’s Corner

by Edward Carter S.J.

My dear fellow priests,

We wish to say a very warm and cordial hello to all our fellow priests! This is our first issue of Shepherds of Christ, and it is, indeed, a real pleasure to come into your company through the printed word.

The purpose of this spirituality newsletter for priests is to offer yet another aid to priests in the development of their spiritual lives. We live in very critical times for both the Church and the world. We priests, by our very vocation, are in a most advantageous position to make an extremely significant contribution to the betterment of both Church and world. And the more we ourselves grow spiritually according to the Gospel message, the more we are able to help the Church and the world progress according to God’s will.

The newsletter will be sent to you six times yearly, free of charge. However, we certainly very much appreciate your donations to help cover the cost of printing and mailing.

Finally, we invite you to send us your comments and observations. Shepherds of Christ is your newsletter, and we want it to be a newsletter which speaks as effectively as possible to you concerning growth in the priestly way of spiritual life.

  

Notes from a Karl Rahner Retreat

The following is an excerpt from notes taken during a retreat given by Father Karl Rahner, one of the most eminent theologians of our time. The retreat was given to a group of candidates for the priesthood. The notes were edited and put into book form.

“Really only a holy priest is neither a mere religious functionary nor an overly zealous religious fanatic. He is not bitter in spite of the true bitterness of human existence. He does not try to escape into neurotic extravagances. He is able to persevere patiently with God and to accept from Him his vocation to follow Christ as a priest without demanding the same thing from everyone else. The holy priest knows how to give things up, pure and simple, without tarnishing his relationship to the world. He can give up everything because he truly loves God and finds everything again in Him. We are on the way toward this type of priestly existence—with God’s grace—and our concrete life is a mixture of its basic elements. And we should have confidence that the God who couples His incalculable call to the priesthood onto the common religious tendency will also bring to completion in us the good work that He began.”2

In the above passage, Rahner reminds us of the necessity of holiness for the priest. Some misconstrue what holiness is. Holiness is simply leading the God-life of grace—received at Baptism—as best as one can with the help of God’s ongoing gift of graces. And since this life of grace, which is a participation in Trinitarian life, is given to us through the mediation of Christ, this grace-life has a Christlike structure. In other words, the call to holiness is the call to put on Christ, to follow Christ as closely as possible. Each day let us strive to know Christ more intimately, to love Him more ardently, and to follow Him more closely. If we live in this manner, we are growing in the life of holiness.

  

The Theology of Consecration

A. Boussard gives an extremely fine and concise sketch of the theology of consecration:

“By the Incarnation, in and of itself, the Humanity of Jesus is consecrated, so that in becoming Man, Jesus is ipso facto constituted Savior, Prophet, King, Priest, and Victim of the One Sacrifice that was to save the world. He is the ‘Anointed’, par excellence, the ‘Christ’ totally belonging to God, His Humanity being that of the Word and indwelled by the Holy Spirit. When, by a free act of His human will, He accepts what He is, doing what He was sent to do, He can say that He consecrates ‘Himself’. In Christ, therefore, what might be called His ‘subjective’ consecration is a perfect response to the ‘objective’ consecration produced in His Humanity through the Incarnation.

“And what Christ does brings with it is a ‘consecration’ for His disciples, a very special belonging to God, since He imparts to them His own life precisely by making them participate in His own consecration.

“Through Baptism Christians also are consecrated and ‘anointed’ by the power of the Spirit. They share, in their measure, in the essential consecration of Christ, in His character of King, Priest, and Prophet (cf. 1 Peter 2:9; 7 Peter 1:3-4; Rev. 5:9, etc.). With Christ and through Christ, they are ‘ordered’ to the glory of God and the salvation of the world. They do not belong to themselves. They belong to Christ the Lord, who imparts His own life to them…

“The vocation of those who have been baptized is to ‘live’ this consecration by a voluntary adherence—and one that is as perfect as possible—to what it has made of them. Living as ‘children of God’, they fulfill subjectively their objective consecration; like Jesus, they consecrate themselves. This is the deeper meaning of vows and baptismal promises, together with the actual way of life corresponding to them. The baptismal consecration is the fundamental one, constitutive of the Christian. All consecrations which come after it presuppose and are rooted in it…”3

  

Act of Priestly Consecration

Lord Jesus, Chief Shepherd of the flock, I consecrate my priestly life to Your most Sacred Heart. From Your pierced Heart the Church was born, the Church You have called me, as a priest, to serve in a most special way. You reveal Your Heart as symbol of Your love in all its aspects including Your most special love for me, whom You have chosen as Your priest-companion. Help me always to love You in return. Help me to give myself entirely to You. Help me always to pour out my life in love of God and neighbor. Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in You!

Dear Blessed Virgin Mary, I consecrate myself to your maternal and Immaculate Heart, this Heart which is symbol of your life of love. You are the Mother of my Savior. You are also my Mother. You love me with a most special love as this unique priest-son. In a return of love, I give myself entirely to your motherly love and protection. You followed Jesus perfectly. You are His first and perfect disciple. Teach me to imitate you in the putting on of Christ. Be my motherly intercessor that, through your Immaculate Heart, I may be guided to an ever closer union with the pierced Heart of Jesus, Chief Shepherd of the flock.

 

The New Catechism and Thoughts on the Priesthood

Here are some inspiring words on the priesthood from the new Catholic Catechism:

“Before the grandeur of the priestly grace and office, the holy doctors felt an urgent call to conversion in order to conform their whole lives to him whose sacrament had made them ministers. Thus St. Gregory of Nazianzus, as a very young priest, exclaimed:

“‘We must begin by purifying ourselves before purifying others; we must be instructed to be able to instruct, become light to illuminate, draw close to God to bring him close to others, be sanctified to sanctify, lead by the hand and counsel prudently. I know whose ministers we are, where we find ourselves and to where we strive. I know God’s greatness and man’s weakness, but also his potential. (Who then is the priest? He is) the defender of truth, who stands with angels, gives glory with archangels, causes sacrifices to rise to the altar on high, shares Christ’s priesthood, refashions creation, restores it in God’s image, recreates it for the world on high and, even greater, is divinized and divinizes’.”4

 

Vatican II on the Priesthood

Vatican II reminds us of the purpose of our being priests, of being shepherds of Christ, Who is Chief Shepherd of the flock:

“The purpose, therefore, which priests pursue by their ministry and life is the glory of God the Father as it is to be achieved in Christ. That glory consists in this: that men knowingly, freely, and gratefully accept what God has achieved perfectly through Christ, and manifest it in their whole lives. Hence, whether engaged in prayer and adoration, preaching the Word, offering the Eucharistic sacrifice, ministering the other sacraments, or performing any of the other works of the ministry for men, priests are contributing to the extension of God’s glory as well as to the development of divine life in men.”5

  
Messages from Jesus and Mary

(We recognize and accept that the final authority regarding these messages rests with the Holy See of Rome, to whose judgment we willingly submit. The decree of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, A.A.S. 58, 1186, approved by Pope Paul VI on October 14, 1966, states that the Imprimatur is no longer required on publications that deal with new revelations, apparitions, prophesies or miracles. It is presumed such publications contain nothing contrary to faith and morals.—The Editor.)

  

Message of Our Lady of Medjugorje

“Dear children, today I am calling you to complete surrender to God. Everything you do and everything you possess give over to God so that He can take control in your life as King of all that you possess. That way, through me, God can lead you into the depths of the spiritual life…”6

 

Message of Jesus

“I love My priests with an overwhelming, burning love! I have given them the great privilege and great responsibility of acting in My name in a most special way. In My great love for My priests, I call them to the highest holiness.

“Let them not be afraid of the call to holiness. I give them abundant graces to grow in holiness. They must resolve to respond to these graces. They must resolve to use the means to grow in holiness. The Mass must be the center of their lives. They must pray much, including the daily recitation of the Liturgy of the Hours. At least some of their prayer should be made before the Tabernacle, where I grant special graces. Nor should they neglect the other ordinary means for the pursuit of holiness.

“I love each of My priests with a most special love! Each day I call them by name. Each day, I call them to come, in union with Mary, to My Heart. I ask them to dwell within My Heart. Here I will give them a sense of My great love for them. Here I will enlighten and strengthen them regarding their priestly ministry. Here I will give them special peace and joy. I am Lord and Master! I urgently request that My priests answer My call. In My great and special love for them, I give them this message!”7

 

Message of Jesus

“Trust in Me, My child…Open yourself up to Me and trust. Why do you not see that Satan wants to stop you and that he does not want the world to get these messages. Such messages of love and comfort! If he can work on you, you will stop. Don’t be fooled by him. He is the great deceiver. He plans to trip you up…You, My child, are strong in Me. I need you to do My work. Laboring in your head, looking for proof, not totally trusting in Me—those come from him. Step on his head. Open your heart to Me and My love—no room for a drop of doubt. I am truly here talking to you, little one. Think about My passion and death. I loved you. I love you this much still today. My heart is so on fire for love of you. You can’t even begin to know how much love I have for you. Just be open to all I send you and cast your doubts away. It is your act of trusting that helps you develop trust in Me. Step-by-step you ascend the stairs and you get closer each time to trusting more in Me. It is your taking each little step that counts. Ascend My steps each day, every day. A million times a day you can trust or worry. You choose, ‘Do I trust or not trust?’ How could you not trust after all I did to prove My love for you? Focus on My passion, on My wounds, on My love, on Me…”8

NOTES

  1. Scriptural quotations are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, Doubleday & Co.
  2. Karl Rahner, S.J., Spiritual Exercises, Herder & Herder, pg. l55.
  3. A. Boussard in Dictionary of Mary, Catholic Book Publishing Co., pp. 54-55.
  4. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, pg. 397.
  5. The Documents of Vatican II, Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests, No. 2, America Press edition.
  6. Message of Our Lady of Medjugorje, July 25, 1988, as contained in Daniel Golob’s Live the Messages, The Riehle Foundation.
  7. Message of Jesus to a chosen one.
  8. God’s Blue Book, messages received by Rita Ring, Our Lady of Light Publications, pg. 52.
      
     

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Shepherds of Christ

A Spiritual Newsletter for Priests

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1994

Chief Shepherd of the Flock

I am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd is one who lays down His life for His sheep. The hired man, since he is not the shepherd and the sheep do not belong to him, abandons the sheep and runs away as soon as he sees a wolf coming, and then the wolf attacks and scatters the sheep. This is because he is only a hired man and has no concern for the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father. And I lay down My life for My sheep. (Jn 10: 11-151).

A faithful shepherd takes care of his sheep in all their needs. This includes providing them with the proper food. Jesus, the perfect Shepherd, abundantly provides for the nourishment of His flock. In the Eucharist He gives Himself in His body, blood, soul, and divinity for our spiritual growth. He also feeds us through His word, through His teaching. The gospel of John, in chapter 6: 35-59, combines both of these ways—Christ nourishing us through His teaching and through the Eucharist. This particular section of John’s gospel gives us Jesus’ great discourse on the Bread of Life. The first part, verses 35-50, speaks of the teaching of Jesus as nourishment, as the bread of life. This first part contains, therefore, the so-called sapiential theme. The second part, verses 51-59, speaks of the Eucharist as our heavenly nourishment. This part, therefore, contains the sacramental theme.

Both aspects of the Bread of Life theme reveal God’s tremendous love for us. The Eucharist is the sacrament of Jesus’ great love for us, and His teaching is summed up in terms of love—God’s overwhelming love for us and our duty to love God and neighbor in return. Each day we should pray for an increased realization of how much God, in Christ Jesus, loves each of us with a most special, unique love. Growing in this awareness and living according to this awareness are the keys to growth in the spiritual life. The more we are convinced of how much Christ loves us as unique individuals, the more able are we to enter into a deep love relationship with Jesus. And if we have the proper love relationship with Jesus, everything else falls into place. Yes, as our union with Jesus grows, He leads us, amid all the pain and all the joy, to a closer union with the Father in the Holy Spirit with Mary, our Mother, at our side.

   

Editor’s Corner

by Edward Carter S.J.

Hello again! We hope the vast majority of you received the first issue of Shepherds of Christ. For whatever reasons, some apparently did not receive their copies. For those who did not, we briefly restate a few remarks concerning this spiritual newsletter for priests. We offer it as yet another aid to priests in the development of their spiritual lives. The newsletter will be sent to you six times yearly, free of charge. However, we certainly very much appreciate your donations to help cover the cost of printing and mailing. We also invite your comments and observations.

Yes, we offer this newsletter as yet another aid to help us live our priesthood as true shepherds of Christ. And in these complex times we need all the help we can get!

There are many conditions in today’s Church and world which can lead a priest into a state of ongoing discouragement if he does not mount a counteroffensive. And his plan of action must be rooted in his personal relationship with Jesus, this Jesus Who loves each of us with an unfathomable love. Let us always remember the words of St. Paul: “Nothing therefore can come between us and the love of Christ, even if we are troubled or worried, or being persecuted, or lacking food or clothes, or being threatened or even attacked…

“For I am certain of this: neither death nor life, no angel, no prince, nothing that exists, nothing still to come, not any power, or height or depth, nor any created thing, can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8: 35-39).

  

Cardinal Bernardin On Priests as Shepherds

“One of the most beautiful images of Christ is that of shepherd. In chapter 10 of John’s gospel Jesus calls Himself the good shepherd and explains what this means. The good shepherd, He says, finds pasture for his sheep; he brings back to the fold those who have strayed; if necessary, he lays down his life for them…

“The image of shepherd supports and enriches the concept of priest as servant. The Bishop’s Committee on Priestly Life and Ministry strongly emphasized this concept in As One Who Serves. The priest, the committee stated, ‘is to be a servant of the People of God, holding them accountable for what they have been and can be. He serves them by calling forth leadership and coordinating ministries. His is a service which calls the people to remember and to celebrate the presence and power of the Risen Lord. In the fullest sense, he is a servant of the human family.’

“Our hearts must be moved with pity when we see people who are suffering, whose lives are empty, who are searching vainly for meaning. Through our ministry and our presence, we must do all we can to bring them the riches of the gospel, so that they will come to know the Lord and experience His love and peace in their lives. This is the shepherd’s work. This is our work as priests who follow in the footsteps of the Good Shepherd and carry on His mission.

“A priest, because of the Person he represents and the message he brings, is one whose ministry is expected to bring people joy, consolation, and hope. Admittedly, a priest cannot remove all the pain and frustration which are part of the human condition. But this ministry can help people cope better with trials and sufferings by seeing them in the light of the Transcendent. While we are obliged to do all we can to promote a better life in this world by building a society rooted in justice and love, in the final analysis our earthly accomplishments and their immediate joys and sorrows are transitory. The ultimate fulfillment of all we attempt, the lasting remedy for all we suffer, lies in life eternal.

“My personal experience convinces me that what people actually want and need is usually much less complex and spectacular than we sometimes imagine. People are not looking for religious leaders who can solve all their problems or answer all their questions. Often they know the answers already; or they know their problem has no immediate solution. More than anything else, people look to us who minister to them for our presence as loving, caring, and forgiving people. They want our help in their efforts to handle pain and frustration. They look to us for understanding; they seek a sensitive and consoling response to their hurt feelings; they need the spiritual comfort we can bring through our ministry of word and sacrament. They want someone who will pray with them, whose presence will remind them that, no matter what their difficulties might be, God really loves them and cares for them. They want assurance that God will never abandon them. This is the preferred style of spiritual leadership in our day.”2

  

Henri Nouwen On Union With Jesus

Fr. Henri Nouwen has been one of the most influential spiritual writers of our times. His following words emphasize the overwhelming importance of the Christian leader—and as priests we are certainly called to be leaders—to be intimately united with Jesus:

“Christian leaders cannot simply be persons who have well-informed opinions about the burning issues of our times. Their leadership must be rooted in the permanent, intimate relationship with the incarnate Word, Jesus, and they need to find there the source for their words, advice, and guidance. Through the discipline of contemplative prayer, Christian leaders have to learn to listen again and again to the voice of love and to find there the wisdom and courage to address whatever issue presents itself to them. Dealing with burning issues without being rooted in a deep personal relationship with God easily leads to divisiveness because, before we know it, our sense of self is caught up in our opinion about a given subject. But when we are securely rooted in personal intimacy with the source of life, it will be possible to remain flexible without being relativistic, convinced without being rigid, willing to confront without being offensive, gentle and forgiving without being soft, and true witnesses without being manipulative.”3

  

St. John Eudes On Union With Jesus

The following words of St. John Eudes remind us of the glorious goal the Christian is called to: the most intimate union with Jesus. We, as priests, have the special privilege and responsibility of seeking this union with Christ in the highest degree:

“I ask you to consider that our Lord Jesus Christ is your true head and that you are a member of his body. He belongs to you as the head belongs to the body. All that is his is yours: breath, heart, body, soul and all his faculties. All these you must use as if they belonged to you, so that in serving him you may give him praise, love and glory. You belong to him as a member belongs to the head. This is why he earnestly desires you to serve and glorify the Father by using all your faculties as if they were his.

“He belongs to you, but more than that, he longs to be in you, living and ruling in you, as the head lives and rules in the body. He desires that whatever is in him may live and rule in you: his breath in your breath, his heart in your heart, all the faculties of his soul in the faculties of your soul, so that these words may be fulfilled in you: Glorify God and bear him in your body, that the life of Jesus may be made manifest in you.

“You belong to the Son of God, but more than that, you ought to be in him as members are in the head. All that is in you must be incorporated into him. You must receive life from him and be ruled by him. There will be no true life for you except in him, for he is the one source of true life. Apart from him you will find only death and destruction. Let him be the only source of your movements, of the actions and the strength of your life. He must be both the source and the purpose of your life, so that you may fulfill these words: None of us lives as his own master and none of us dies as his own master. While we live, we are responsible to the Lord, and when we die, we die as his servants. Both in life and death we are the Lord’s. That is why Christ died and came to life again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

“Finally, you are one with Jesus as the body is one with the head. You must, then, have one breath with him, one soul, one life, one will, one mind, one heart. And he must be your breath, heart, love, life, your all. These great gifts in the follower of Christ originate from baptism. They are increased and strengthened through confirmation and by making good use of other graces that are given by God. Through the holy eucharist they are brought to perfection.”4

  

Karl Rahner On The Imitation of Christ

The following is an excerpt from notes taken during a retreat given by Fr. Karl Rahner, S.J. The retreat was given to a group of candidates for the priesthood. The notes were edited into book form: “We should not reduce participation in the life of Jesus to some sort of moral relationship. Moral influence coming from Jesus must be made possible by and based on an ontological influence. By reason of the Incarnation of the Word and the whole history of the life and death of Jesus, each of us is already personally involved in the life of Jesus. In fact the whole world including the life of every human being is really affected and determined by His human existence. In a narrower and historically perceptible sense, after being affected by Him we are incorporated by Baptism into that community which is His Body, and by this sacramental-ontological determination of our historical existence, we were drawn even further into His life…

“The imitation of Christ consists in a true entering into His life and in Him entering into the inner life of the God that has been given to us.”5

  

St. Teresa of Avila On Doing God’s Will

The close union with Jesus which Henri Nouwen, St. John Eudes, and Karl Rahner talk about centers in our doing Christ’s will out of love for Him. Jesus’ will for us is, of course, the same as His Father’s will for us. St. Teresa of Avila, one of the two women doctors of the Church (the other is St. Catherine of Siena) tells us how the spiritual life is summed up in loving conformity to God’s will:

“All that the beginner in prayer has to do—and you must not forget this, for it is very important—is to labor and to be resolute and prepare himself with all possible diligence to bring his will in conformity with the will of God. As I shall say later, you may be quite sure that this comprises the very greatest perfection which can be attained on the spiritual road.”6 Again she states: “…love consists…in the firmness of our determination to try to please God in everything.”7

  

John Powell On Saying “Yes” to the Will of God

A very popular spiritual writer of our time, Fr. John Powell, S.J., gives us thoughts concerning saying “yes” to God’s will. His words easily follow the above thoughts of St. Teresa:

“There have been quite a few times in my life when I have felt the winds of God’s grace in the sails of my small boat. Sometimes these graces have moved me in pleasant and sunlit directions. At other times the requested acts of love were born in darkness of struggle and suffering. There have been springtimes and there have been long, cold winters of struggle for survival. God has come to me at times with the purest kindness, at times with the most affirming encouragement, and at other times with bold and frightening challenges. I think that all of us have to watch and pray, to be ready to say ‘yes’ when God’s language is concrete and his request is specific—‘yes’ in the sunlit springtimes and ‘yes’ in the darkness of winter nights.”8

   

St. Louis de Montfort On Consecration

A contemporary Marian scholar, Fr. Arthur Collins, offers the following thought concerning St. Louis de Montfort, one of the greatest of Marian apostles: “Perhaps, in the final analysis, the greatest contribution of this Breton saint to the theology of Marian consecration is precisely in his insistence on Mary’s mediation as willed by God.”9

St. Louis de Montfort himself sums up, in a few words, his thoughts on consecration, “The more one is consecrated to Mary, the more one is consecrated to Jesus.”10

  

A Priestly Consecration

The previously quoted words of St. John Eudes remind us of the extremely close union we are called to have with Jesus. As we realize Jesus’ tremendous and most special unique love for each of us, we are asked to give ourselves in a return of love to Jesus. We are called to strive to live the union described by St. John Eudes. In other words, we are called to continue to say “yes” to the objective consecration we received in the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Orders. There follows a suggested act of consecration:

Lord Jesus, Chief Shepherd of the flock, I consecrate my priestly life to your most Sacred Heart. From Your pierced Heart the Church was born, the Church You have called me, as a priest, to serve in a most special way. You reveal Your Heart as symbol of Your love in all its aspects, including Your most special love for me, whom You have chosen as Your priest-companion. Help me always to give myself entirely to You. Help me always to pour out my life in love of God and neighbor. Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in You!

Dear Blessed Virgin Mary, I consecrate myself to your maternal and Immaculate Heart, this Heart which is symbol of your life of love. You are the Mother of my Savior. You are also my Mother. You love me with a most special love as this unique priest-son. In a return of love, I give myself entirely to your motherly love and protection. You followed Jesus perfectly. You are his first and perfect disciple. Teach me to imitate you in the putting on of Christ. Be my motherly intercessor that, through your Immaculate Heart, I may be guided to an ever closer union with the pierced Heart of Jesus, Chief Shepherd of the Flock.

  

Shepherds of Christ Associates

We have started a spiritual movement which has a connection with this particular newsletter. The movement is called Shepherds of Christ Associates. The associates belong to groups, or chapters. These groups meet on a regular basis. One of the primary purposes of the groups is to pray for all the needs of all priests the world over. A particularized intention of the groups is to pray for the spiritual success of this newsletter.

The movement offers a spiritual way of life for the members of the chapters. The chapters are open to all—to all persons of all vocational states of life. A handbook which explains the movement, offers the spiritual way of life, and provides details for procedures at chapter meetings, is available upon request. You may obtain this by writing us at the address on the back page of the newsletter.

NOTES

  1. Scriptural quotations are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, Doubleday & Co.
  2. Archbishop Joseph Bernardin, Called To Serve, Called To Lead, St. Anthony Messenger Press, pp. 17-20.
  3. Henri Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus, pp. 31-32.
  4. St. John Eudes, from a treatise on the Admirable Heart of Jesus, as in The Liturgy of the Hours, Catholic Book Publishing Co., Vol. IV, pp. 1331-32.
  5. Karl Rahner, S.J., Spiritual Exercises, Herder & Herder, pp. 117-118.
  6. St. Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle, translated by E. Allison Peers, Doubleday & Co., “Second Mansions”, p. 51.
  7. Ibid., “Fourth Mansions”, p. 76.
  8. John Powell, S.J., The Christian Vision, Argus Communications, p. 147.
  9. Arthur Collins, Totus Tuus: John Paul’s Program of Marian Consecration and Entrustment, Academy of the Immaculata, p. 177.
  10. St. Louis de Montfort, God Alone: The Collected Writings of St. Louis de Montfort, Montfort Publications, p. 327.
     
     

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Shepherds of Christ

A Spiritual Newsletter for Priests

NOVEMBER/ DECEMBER 1994

Chief Shepherd of the Flock

“I am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd is one who lays down His life for His sheep. The hired man, since he is not the shepherd and the sheep do not belong to him, abandons the sheep and runs away as soon as he sees a wolf coming, and then the wolf attacks and scatters the sheep. This is because he is only a hired man and has no concern for the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father. And I lay down My life for My sheep.” (Jn 10: 11-151).

Yes, the Good Shepherd has laid down His life for His sheep. The Good Shepherd’s magnificent Heart, overflowing with love for His Father and all of us, was pierced so that the waters of our salvation might flow forth: “It was Preparation Day, and to prevent the bodies remaining on the cross during the sabbath—since that sabbath was a day of special solemnity—the Jews asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken away. Consequently the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with him and then of the other. When they came to Jesus, they found he was already dead, and so instead of breaking his legs one of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance. And immediately there came out blood and water.” (Jn 19: 31-34).

Bonaventure, the Franciscan saint and doctor of the Church, comments on the pierced Heart of the Good Shepherd: “Then, in order that the Church might be formed out of the side of Christ sleeping on the cross…the divine plan permitted that one of the soldiers pierce open His sacred side with a lance. While blood mixed with water flowed, the price of our salvation was poured forth, which gushing forth from the sacred fountain of the heart gave power to the sacraments of the Church…”2

Another doctor of the Church, St. Augustine, also refers to the source of life which is the pierced Heart of Jesus: “On the cross he made a great exchange. There the purse which held our price was opened, for when the soldier’s spear opened his side, the price of the whole world flowed forth.”3

Finally, we have the words of the Church herself concerning the pierced Heart of Jesus. In the preface for the Mass of the Sacred Heart we read in part: “Lifted high on the cross, Christ gave his life for us, so much did he love us. From his wounded side flowed blood and water, the fountain of sacramental life in the Church. To his open heart the Savior invites all…to draw water in joy from the springs of salvation.”4

Yes, the Church reminds us that Jesus the Good Shepherd invites all to come to His open Heart, this Heart which symbolizes His love and calls for our love in return. The Church invites all to come to Jesus’ pierced Heart in order to be clothed with the graces which the Heart of Jesus longs to give us in abundance. We priests have the privilege and responsibility to lead the members of Jesus’ flock to the pierced Heart of Jesus in order that they may be showered with the graces which are necessary for their salvation and ongoing sanctification. As a good shepherd under Jesus, Chief Shepherd of the Flock, the priest has to lead the sheep to the only source of true nourishment, the pierced Heart of Christ. The more we priests ourselves dwell within the pierced Heart of Jesus, as the Church invites all to do, the more we are able to lead others to this sacred refuge and source of all spiritual nourishment. As we ourselves dwell within the pierced Heart of Jesus, Christ gives us an increased awareness of how much He loves each person with the most special and unique love. Jesus has chosen each priest to be a most special ambassador to spread the message of this overwhelming love of His Heart for each individual. The more we priests ourselves grow in the awareness of how much Jesus loves each of us as His priest-companions, the more we are able to teach to others the truth of Jesus’ special love for each individual. And the more we priests realize how much Jesus wants the love of each individual, the more we are also able to teach His truth to others.

Jesus suffered and died for the entire human race, but He did it in a manner which makes it true to say He also did it for each individual in a most special way. Notice how personalized St. Paul makes the redemptive suffering and death and love of Jesus. In the letter to the Galatians he does not use the plural, but the singular: “I have been crucified with Christ, and the life I live now is not my own; Christ is living in me. I still live my human life, but it is a life of faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal 2: 19-20).

  

Editor’s Corner

by Edward Carter S.J.

We wish all our priest-readers a most happy and blessed New Year. During this coming year and always may God give us all abundant graces for our own spiritual growth and for the fruitfulness of our priestly ministry.

The feast of Christmas, which we have just celebrated, is an excellent time to remind ourselves of the reason for the Incarnation: “Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.” (Jn 3: 16).

This brief scriptural passage in its own way summarizes the religion Christ came to give us. The passage in effect tells us that we are to be aware of God’s love lavishly given to us in Jesus Christ, and that we are to respond with a love of our own, that we are to believe in Jesus Christ. We know, of course, that the biblical concept of faith includes the entire person, including the act of love whereby a person gives oneself to the following of Jesus. To repeat, the above passage from John’s Gospel summarizes Christian existence: the awareness of God’s love for us in Christ and our response of love in Christ—our love of God and neighbor.

A number of entries in this issue contain ideas regarding devotion to the Heart of Christ. I mention this consequent to what I have just said because devotion to the Heart of Christ gives us the same summary of Christian existence as does the above passage from John. Pius XII has left us these words: “…we readily understand that devotion to…the Heart of Jesus is essentially devotion to the love with which God loved us through Jesus and is at the same time an enlivening of our love for God and man. Or, to put it in other words, this devotion is directed to God’s love for us in order to adore Him, to thank Him and to spend our lives imitating Him.”5

  

The Eucharist: Source and Summit of Christian Life

Our personal relationship with Christ is characterized by the realization of the great, special love of His Heart for each of us and of our need to love Him in return. The chief source for growth in this personal relationship with Jesus is the Eucharist. The New Catechism tells us: “The Eucharist is ‘the source and summit of the Christian life.’ The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical mysteries and work of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch.”6

  

Pope John Paul II, St. John Vianney and The Heart of Christ

Pope John Paul II reminds us of the key role devotion to the Heart of Jesus played in the life of the inspirational priest-saint, John Vianney, the Cure of Ars: “The Cure of Ars is a model of priestly zeal for all pastors. The secret of his generosity is to be found without doubt in his love of God, lived without limits, in constant response to the love made manifest in Christ crucified. This is where he bases his desire to do everything to save the souls ransomed by Christ at such a great price, and to bring them back to the love of God. Let us recall one of those pithy sayings which he had the knack of uttering: ‘The priesthood is the love of the Heart of Jesus.’ In his sermons and catechesis he continually returned to that love: ‘O my God, I prefer to die loving you than to live a single instant without loving you…’

“Dear brother priests, nourished by the Second Vatican Council which has felicitously placed the priest’s consecration within the framework of his pastoral mission, let us join Saint John Vianney and seek the dynamism of our pastoral zeal in the Heart of Jesus, in his love for souls. If we do not draw from the same source, our ministry risks bearing little fruit.”7

  

Henri Nouwen on the Need for Theological Reflection

Henri Nouwen, one of the most influential writers of our times, also refers to the Heart of Christ in these provocative words on theological reflection: “Few ministers and priests think theologically. Most of them have been educated in a climate in which the behavioral sciences, such as psychology and sociology, so dominated the educational milieu that little true theology was being learned. Most Christian leaders today raise psychological or sociological questions even though they frame them in scriptural terms. Real, theological thinking, which is thinking with the mind of Christ, is hard to find in the practice of the ministry. Without solid theological reflection, future leaders will be little more than pseudo-psychologists, pseudo-sociologists, pseudo-social workers…

“The task of future Christian leaders is not to make a little contribution to the solution of the pain and tribulations of their time, but to identify and announce the ways in which Jesus is leading God’s people out of slavery, through the desert to a new land of freedom…In short, they have to say ‘no’ to the secular world and proclaim in unambiguous terms that the incarnation of God’s Word, through whom all things came into being, has made even the smallest event of human history into Kairos, that is, an opportunity to be led deeper into the heart of Christ... (emphasis that of the editor).

“Thinking about the future of Christian leadership, I am convinced that it needs to be a theological leadership. For this to come about, much—very much—has to happen in seminaries and divinity schools. They have to become centers where people are trained in true discernment of the signs of the time. This cannot be just an intellectual training. It requires a deep spiritual formation involving the whole person—body, mind, and heart. I think we are only half aware of how secular even theological schools have become. Formation in the mind of Christ, who did not cling to power but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, is not what most seminaries are about. Everything in our competitive and ambitious world militates against it. But to the degree that such formation is being sought for and realized, there is hope for the Church of the next century.”8

  

Promises of Our Lord & Rahner’s Commentary

The following promises of Our Lord were given to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque regarding those who are devoted to His Heart. Following the promises is Karl Rahner’s commentary on the same.

  1. I will give them all the graces necessary in their state of life.
  2. I will establish peace in their homes.
  3. I will comfort them in all their afflictions.
  4. I will be their secure refuge during life, and above all in death.
  5. I will bestow abundant blessings. upon all their undertakings.
  6. Sinners shall find in My Heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.
  7. Lukewarm souls shall become fervent.
  8. Fervent souls shall quickly mount to high perfection.
  9. I will bless every place in which an image of My Heart is exposed and honored.
  10. I will give to priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts.
  11. Those who promote this devotion shall have their names written in My Heart, never to be blotted out.
  12. I promise you in the excessive mercy of My Heart that My all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on the First Fridays in nine consecutive months the grace of final penitence; they shall not die in My disgrace, nor without receiving their Sacraments. My Divine Heart shall be their refuge.9

Here is Rahner’s commentary regarding these promises: “Taken in their entirety, these promises affirm and offer no more than our Lord promised in the Gospel to absolute faith…What is new in these promises is therefore not their content, but the circumstances of their fulfillment, the fact that what has already been promised in substance in the Gospels is now attached precisely to devotion to the Sacred Heart. To anyone with a grasp of the devotion, who practices it in the deep unconditional faith that it demands, this ‘new’ element in the promises will offer no special problem.”10

  

Act of Consecration

Lord Jesus, Chief Shepherd of the Flock, I consecrate my priestly life to Your Heart, pierced on Calvary for love of us. From Your pierced Heart the Church was born, the Church You have called me, as a priest, to serve in a most special way. You reveal Your Heart as symbol of Your love in all its aspects, including Your most special love for me, whom You have chosen as Your priest-companion. Help me always to pour out my life in love of God and neighbor. Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in You!

Dear Blessed Virgin Mary, I consecrate myself to your maternal and Immaculate Heart, this Heart which is symbol of your life and love. You are the Mother of my Savior. You are also my Mother. You love me with the most special love as this unique priest-son. In return of love I give myself entirely to your motherly love and protection. You followed Jesus perfectly. You are His first and perfect disciple. Teach me to imitate you in the putting on of Christ. Be my motherly intercessor so that, through your Immaculate Heart, I may be guided to an ever closer union with the pierced Heart of Jesus, Chief Shepherd of the Flock, who leads me to the Father in the Holy Spirit.

  

Vatican II on Priestly Holiness

Living out our life of consecration is living the life of holiness. Vatican II speaks to us about the priestly life of holiness: “By the sacrament of orders priests are configured to Christ the Priest so that as ministers of the Head and co-workers of the episcopal order they can build up and establish His whole Body which is the Church. Already, indeed, in the consecration of baptism, like all Christians, they received the sign and the gift of so lofty a vocation and a grace that even despite human weakness they can and must pursue according to the Lord’s words: ‘You therefore are to be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect’ (Mt 5:48).

“To the acquisition of this perfection priests are bound by a special claim, since they have been consecrated to God in a new way by the reception of orders. They have become living instruments of Christ the eternal priest, so that through the ages they can accomplish His wonderful work of reuniting the whole society of men with heavenly power. Therefore, since every priest in his own way represents Christ Himself, he is also enriched with special grace…

“Priestly holiness itself contributes very greatly to a fruitful fulfillment of the priestly ministry. True, the grace of God can complete the work of salvation even through unworthy ministers. Yet ordinarily God desires to manifest His works through those who have been made particularly docile to the impulse and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Because of their intimate union with Christ and their holiness of life, these men can say with the Apostle: ‘It is now no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me’ (Gal 2:20)”11.

  

St. Charles Borromeo On The Necessity of Prayer

One of the most necessary means for growth in the life of holiness of which Vatican II speaks is prayer. St. Charles Borromeo speaks to priests about this: “We must meditate before, during and after everything we do. The prophet says: I will pray, and then I will understand. When you administer the sacraments, meditate on what you are doing. When you celebrate Mass, reflect on the sacrifice you are offering. When you pray the office, think about the words you are saying and the Lord to whom you are speaking. When you take care of your people, meditate on the Lord’s blood that has washed them clean. In this way, all that you do becomes a work of love.

“This is the way we can easily overcome the countless difficulties we have to face day after day, which, after all, are part of our work: in meditation we find the strength to bring Christ to birth in ourselves and in other men.”12

  

The New Catechism and Social Justice

Our life of holiness must have a social dimension. The more we go to the Father, through Christ, in the Holy Spirit, with Mary our Mother at our side, the more we grow in concern for others. One aspect of our concern for others is our work in promoting social justice. The new Catechism reminds us of truths upon which social justice must be based: “Social justice can be obtained only in respecting the transcendent dignity of man…

“Respect for the human person entails respect for the rights that flow from his dignity as a creature…

“Respect for the human person proceeds by way of respect for the principle that everyone should look upon his neighbor (without any exception) as ‘another self’, above all bearing in mind his life and the means necessary for living it with dignity. No legislation could by itself do away with the fears, prejudices, and attitudes of pride and selfishness which obstruct the establishment of truly fraternal societies. Such behavior will cease only through the charity that finds in every man ‘a neighbor’, a brother.

“The duty of making oneself a neighbor to others and actively serving them becomes even more urgent when it involves the disadvantaged, in whatever area this may be. ‘As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’

“The same duty extends to those who think or act differently from us. The teaching of Christ goes so far as to require forgiveness of offenses. He extends the commandment of love, which is that of the New Law, to all enemies. Liberation in the spirit of the Gospel is incompatible with hatred of one’s enemy as a person, but not with hatred of the evil that he does as an enemy.”13

NOTES

  1. Scriptural quotations are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, Doubleday & Co.
  2. Bonaventure, tr. by E. Cousins, Paulist Press, pp. 154-155.
  3. The Liturgy of the Hours, Catholic Book Publishing Co., Vol. IV, 1727.
  4. The Sacramentary, Catholic Book Publishing Co., p. 463.
  5. Pius XII, Haurietis Aquas, Catholic Mind, (1956), Part IV.
  6. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, p. 397.
  7. Letter of Pope John Paul II to All Priests of the Church for Holy Thursday 1986, St. Paul Editions.
  8. Henri Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus, Crossword Pub., pp. 65-70.
  9. Alban Dachauer, S.J., The Sacred Heart, Bruce Pub., pp. 147-148.
  10. Karl Rahner, S.J., as in The Heart of the Redeemer, Trinity Communications, p. 140.
  11. The Documents of Vatican II, Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests, America Press Edition, Ch. 3, No. 12.
  12. The Liturgy of the Hours, op. cit., Vol.. IV, p. 1727.
  13. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, op. cit., p. 460.
     
     

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Shepherds of Christ

A Spiritual Newsletter for Priests

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

Chief Shepherd of the Flock

“I am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd is one who lays down His life for His sheep. The hired man, since he is not the shepherd and the sheep do not belong to him, abandons the sheep and runs away as soon as he sees a wolf coming, and then the wolf attacks and scatters the sheep. This is because he is only a hired man and has no concern for the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father. And I lay down My life for My sheep.” (Jn 10: 11-151).

Yes, out of His great love for us, the Good Shepherd laid down His life for us. Love for His Father and for us led the Good Shepherd to the brutal death on the cross. The Incarnation is, indeed, centered in love. Our insight into the Christ-event deepens as we consider it in the light of love. The Father has given us a sign of His love for us in Jesus. Jesus Himself is this sign of the Father’s love—a lavish sign, an unmistakable sign, an irrevocable sign, a perfect sign. We are meant, then, to understand the meaning of the Son’s becoming man in terms of love. We are to draw from the riches contained in the Christ-event in terms of love. We live Jesus, we live the Christ-event, in proportion to our acceptance of God’s love and our own return of love. As we grow in love of God and neighbor, we give greater witness to the Incarnation, which is a work of God’s love. Jesus reveals His Heart to remind us of all this. His pierced Heart, symbol of God’s overwhelming love for us, calls for our love of God and neighbor in return.

  

Reflections on Love

The above thoughts give us an occasion to offer various reflections on love:

Editor’s Corner

by Edward Carter S.J.

The New Year, with its connotations of newness, is an occasion to remind ourselves that Christ has come to give us newness of life. Indeed, in Christ, we are new creatures: “And for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old creation has gone, and now the new one is here.” (2 Cor 5:17).

As we begin the New Year, we have an appropriate opportunity to resolve to live this newness of life Jesus has given us at a deeper level. Another way of putting this is to say that the inception of the New Year gives us an opportunity to resolve to avoid spiritual mediocrity. Let’s resolve to live each day of the New Year—and all the days of the rest of our lives—at the deepest spiritual level possible. Jesus comes to us anew each day with the invitation to enter into His life ever more deeply. Let’s resolve not to waste these daily invitations of Our Lord. If we respond each day to Jesus’ call to come closer to Him that day, we will avoid spiritual mediocrity. We will be gradually opening ourselves more and more to the immense, personal love which Jesus has for each one of us. We will be giving ourselves to Christ with an ever greater love. We will be experiencing peace and joy in ever greater measure—for peace and joy are the two chief fruits of love.

  

The Priest and Friendship

One of the ways all of us experience love—both giving and receiving love—is through friendship. The Directory on the Ministry and Life of Priests offers some thoughts on the priest and friendship: “The capacity to develop and profoundly live priestly friendship is a source of serenity and joy in the exercise of the ministry, a decisive support in difficulties and a valuable help in the growth of pastoral charity. Priests must exercise this friendship in a particular way precisely towards those brothers most in need of understanding, help and support.”3

Friendship is one of God’s greatest gifts. It is a type of personal relationship that befits any age and any vocation. One of the beauties of friendship is the special type of love that is involved. Two people become friends and remain friends because they mutually want to do so. In friendship, there are no juridical bonds as there are in marriage and family life. In real friendship, this special freedom that both parties possess regarding the initiation and maintenance of the relationship does not instigate insecure feelings, but rather enhances the relationship with a special kind of splendor.

One of the beauties of friendship is the obvious fact that a person may have more than one friend. A person should not view multiple friendships as being in competition with one another. A person’s various authentic friendships, all providing their own opportunities for growth, clothe the person with a maturing richness of personality that increasingly contributes to the health of each of the friendships in particular.

Close friends stand side by side and together walk the path of life. Secure in each other’s acceptance and love, each feels a sense of relief that one does not need to maintain any kind of facade. Each is encouraged to be and to become according to the real, true self. Far from hampering the proper unfolding and developing of each one’s personality, the friendship offers many diverse opportunities for the maturing of each other’s uniqueness. Indeed, each person feels that without the other he or she may not have grown in certain ways at all.

Close friends share many things. They share life’s ideals and goals, for example, and in this sharing feel encouraged to achieve a greater realization of these ideals and goals. Close friends share each other’s sorrows, and in this sharing the sorrows become more bearable. Close friends share each other’s failures, and in this sharing they gain the strength to rise and try again. Close friends also share each other’s successes, and in this sharing are encouraged to fulfill more and more their mission, their work in life.

Each of us, then, has many reasons to thank God for the wonderful gift of friendship, for, indeed, friendship in so many diverse ways has helped us to be and to become. In so many diverse ways, the gift of friendship has helped us to live the paschal mystery of death and resurrection. Truly, it has helped us bear the dark, the difficult, the worrisome aspect of life with greater equanimity. Likewise, it has helped us experience the bright, the pleasant, the exuberant side of life with greater joy.

We should always remember that all of our friendships should be rooted in Christ. To put it another way, our very friendship with Jesus is the source for our ability to be true friends with others. And, of course, our friendship with Jesus is centered in love. This friend Jesus shows each of us His Heart as a reminder of how much He loves each one of us with the most unique and special love. And He longs for our love in return. What a privilege! Yes, what a privilege it is to be invited by the Incarnate Son of God to have the deepest friendship with Himself. Jesus has left us these beautiful and awe-inspiring words: “I shall not call you servants any more, because a servant does not know his master’s business; I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learned from My Father.” (Jn 15:15).

  

Pope John Paul II on Faithfulness

The Holy Father offers us some very meaningful words on the subject of faithfulness. Faithfulness, of course, is one of the chief characteristics of love: “Virgo fidelis, the faithful Virgin. What does this faithfulness of Mary mean? What are the dimensions of this faithfulness? The first dimension is called search. Mary was faithful first of all when she began, lovingly, to seek the deep sense of God’s plan in her and for the world. ‘Quomodo fiet? How shall this be?’, she asked the Angel of the Annunciation.

“The second dimension of faithfulness is called reception, acceptance. The quomodo fiet is changed, on Mary’s lips, to a fiat, ‘Let it be done, I am ready, I accept.’ This is the moment in which man perceives that he will never completely understand the ‘how’; that there are in God’s plan more areas of mystery than of clarity; that, however he may try, he will never succeed in understanding it completely…

“The third dimension of faithfulness is consistency to live in accordance with what one believes; to adapt one’s life to the object of one’s adherence. To accept misunderstanding, persecutions, rather than a break between what one practices and what one believes; this is consistency…

“But all faithfulness must pass the most exacting test, that of duration. Therefore, the fourth dimension of faithfulness is constancy. It is easy to be consistent for a day or two. It is difficult and important to be consistent for one’s whole life. It is easy to be consistent in the hour of enthusiasm. It is difficult to be so in the hour of tribulation.”4

  

The Source of Our Faithfulness

It is impossible to incorporate into our lives the dimensions of faithfulness about which the Pope speaks without a meaningful and evolving union with Jesus. Mary was Jesus’ most faithful follower because she had the greatest, the deepest love-union with Him.

Our love-union with Jesus is centered in our Eucharistic devotion, The more we take the means to draw from the infinite source of grace which is the pierced, Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, the more we are united with Him, and, consequently, the more one’s faithfulness grows. Our union with the Eucharistic Christ, in turn, depends greatly on our spirit of prayer. A consistent prayer life is necessary for the proper assimilation of the graces which flow from the Eucharist. Here, then, are our great means for our growth in union with Jesus: the Eucharist and prayer. And, again, increased union with Jesus means increased faithfulness. Let us ask Mary, the faithful Virgin, and our faithful Mother, to obtain for us the grace to grow in our appreciation of the Eucharist and the life of prayer. If we grow in this appreciation, and live accordingly, we come ever closer to Jesus, who desires to lead us to an ever deeper union with the Father in the Holy Spirit.

Some of the above thoughts are contained in the following passage from the Directory on the Ministry and Life of Priests:

“To remain faithful to the obligation of ‘being with Christ’, it is necessary that the priest know how to imitate the Church in prayer…

“Strengthened by the special bond with the Lord the priest will know how to confront those moments in which he could feel alone among men; effectively renewing his being with Christ who in the Eucharist is his refuge and best repose.

“Like Christ, who was often alone with the Father (cf Lk 3:21; Mk 1:35), the priest also must be the man who finds communion with God in solitude, so he can say with St. Ambrose: ‘I am never less alone than as when I am alone'…”5

  

Merton on Prayer

I think it is safe to say that no spiritual writer of our times has written more prolifically on prayer than has Thomas Merton. His following words help us to continue what has been said above concerning the importance of prayer:

“Meditation is a twofold discipline that has a twofold function. First it is supposed to give you sufficient control over your mind and memory and will to enable you to recollect yourself and withdraw from exterior things and the business and activities and thoughts and concerns of temporal existence, and second—this is the real end of meditation—it teaches you how to become aware of the presence of God; and most of all it aims at bringing you to a state of almost constant loving attention to God and dependence on Him.”6

  

Making the Most of Life’s Opportunities

Love—together with its faithfulness—bids us to make the most of life’s opportunities. Fr. Philip Hamilton, currently a pastor and formerly an Air Force chaplain and college professor, encourages us to seize the God-given opportunities for contributing to the life of God’s kingdom:

“Tucked away on the back pages of most of the Catholic newspapers that I read was an article about a great man’s death. The man has certainly been one of the most influential priests in the history of our country. He was Father Patrick Peyton.

“Father Peyton was born in County Mayo in Ireland. He came to the United States in 1928 with his brother Thomas. The two brothers entered the seminary joining the priests at Notre Dame in the Society of the Holy Cross. As a seminarian he contracted tuberculosis. He prayed to our Blessed Mother that he might be cured and be able to be ordained a priest. He was, and lived to the age of eighty-three…

“Father Peyton, Irish immigrant that he was, moved hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, to a renewed appreciation of the rosary. He is said to be the author of the phrase, ‘the family that prays together stays together’. And the rosary was the prayer that he offered the family. He traveled the world preaching the rosary. People came by the thousands.

“Father had a dream as a young priest. His faith and optimism made that dream a reality. How many young priests, perhaps much more talented than he, had such a dream? Perhaps even I. Yet instead of lacking confidence in self and others, he boldly went forward and with the grace of God deeply affected the lives of millions while the rest of us, in our cautionary security, continued in our little ways free of fear because we never tried. We were always satisfied with small success. How many thousands of young men and women, probably dozens even on Hilton Head, could touch people as Father Peyton; but they never will because they have become satisfied with the living without fear or rejection through not having tried.

“I am seventy-four years old; but as I think of Father Peyton while writing this little essay at five a.m. here in my office, I am filled with the eagerness in the years left me to shout loud and publicly, ‘Look out world, here I come to bring you the Good News of Christ! You and your children are going to know that I have been here telling you, showing you Who Christ is and what He can do in your lives.’

“That is how thinking about a man like Father Peyton affects me. What does he do for you?”7

Mary and the Priest

Our friendship with Jesus as His priest-companions, our faithfulness to Him because we love Him, very much involves Mary. She, under God, is the Mother of our Christ-life. She cooperates with the Holy Spirit in our ongoing transformation in Christ. Fr. Arthur Calkins, a contemporary Marian scholar, offers us these words on Mary and the priest:

“If every Christian ought to see himself in the Apostle John, entrusted to Mary as her son or daughter, how much more ought priests to recognize themselves as sons of Mary, as the subjects of a ‘double’ entrustment to her. I say ‘double’, because they are successors of John by a twofold title: as disciples and as priests. This is beautifully drawn out by our Holy Father in his Holy Thursday Letter to Priests of 1988: ‘If John at the foot of the Cross somehow represents every man and woman for whom the motherhood of the Mother of God is spiritually extended, how much more does this concern each of us, who are sacramentally called to the priestly ministry of the Eucharist in the Church!’

“No doubt there are any number of priests today who would say that such reasoning represents a certain ‘snob appeal’, a ‘clerical culture’ that should have disappeared after the Council. The emphasis now, they would maintain, is on equality: we all share the common priesthood of the faithful and priestly ordination does not make us better than lay people.

“Surely, it is true that the hierarchical priesthood which is received by the imposition of the bishop’s hands is conferred on the basis of the royal priesthood which all the faithful share. It is also true that of itself priestly ordination does not make one morally better than the laity…

“But the fact is that the Sacrament of Holy Orders configures the priest more closely to Christ the Eternal Priest to the extent that his soul receives an indelible spiritual character and his very being is transformed in a way that allows him to function in persona Christi, in the very person of Christ, as he celebrates the sacraments and intercedes as a member of and on behalf of the whole Church. Hence this scriptural injunction surely holds true for the priest: ‘When much has been given a man, much will be required of him. More will be asked of a man to whom more has been entrusted’ (Lk 12:48). Saint Thomas Aquinas puts it this way: ‘Those who have been chosen for a superior position through the bestowal of Holy Orders also have been called to a similar height of holiness’ (Summa Theologica, suppl., q. 35, a. 1, ad 3)…

“Although Jesus had already entrusted every priest to his Mother from the height of the cross and the Pope has done it even hundreds of times, it is still necessary for the priest to do so himself if he would truly experience the power and the protection of the Mother of God in his life as her Divine Son intends it. Priests who have done so know the difference it makes.8

  

Act of Consecration

Lord Jesus, Chief Shepherd of the Flock, I consecrate my priestly life to Your Heart, pierced on Calvary for love of us. From Your pierced Heart the Church was born, the Church You have called me, as a priest, to serve in a most special way. You reveal Your Heart as symbol of Your love in all its aspects, including Your most special love for me, whom You have chosen as Your priest-companion. Help me always to pour out my life in love of God and neighbor. Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in You!

Dear Blessed Virgin Mary, I consecrate myself to your maternal and Immaculate Heart, this Heart which is symbol of your life and love. You are the Mother of my Savior. You are also my Mother. You love me with the most special love as this unique priest-son. In a return of love I give myself entirely to your motherly love and protection. You followed Jesus perfectly. You are His first and perfect disciple. Teach me to imitate you in the putting on of Christ. Be my motherly intercessor so that, through your Immaculate Heart, I may be guided to an ever closer union with the pierced Heart of Jesus, Chief Shepherd of the Flock, who leads me to the Father in the Holy Spirit.

 

The Holy Spirit in Our Lives

As the closing words of the act of consecration remind us, Jesus leads us to the Father in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is given to us to transform us more and more according to the likeness of Christ. Mary our Mother cooperates with the Spirit, Whose spouse she is, in this process. Obviously, we should pray to the Holy Spirit each day. Here is one of the available prayers: “Come, Holy Spirit, almighty Sanctifier. God of love, Who filled the Virgin Mary with grace, Who wonderfully changed the hearts of the apostles, Who endowed all your martyrs with miraculous courage, come and sanctify us. Enlighten our minds, strengthen our wills, purify our consciences, rectify our judgment, set our hearts on fire, and preserve us from the misfortunes of resisting Your inspirations. Amen.”

 

St. Therese and the Heart of Christ

The following words of St. Therese of Lisieux, contained in a letter to one of her sisters, have an obvious connection with the above act of consecration to the Heart of Christ: “I myself find it very easy to practice perfection, for I know that all one has to do is to take Jesus by His Heart. Even if I had on my conscience every sin it is possible to commit, I should fling myself, my heart broken with sorrow, into the arms of Jesus, for I know He loves the prodigal child who returns to Him.”9

Letters

We wish to thank most sincerely all those who have taken the time to write us letters. Because of rather stringent space limitations, we can print only a very few of these. The ones we print are, for the most part, picked at random.

I read with deep interest your edition of Shepherds of Christ. It is spiritually based, neatly organized, and very readable. Again, congratulations on a beautiful ministry.

Rev. Joseph F. Brennan Pastor, St. Genevieve Church LaFayette, Louisiana

  

Thank you for sending me the newsletter, Shepherds of Christ. I loved it. I need all the help you can give during these confusing times. I must not lose sight of my objective—a true salesman for Our Lord. I must be sold first to love Him before I bring others to Him.

Fr. Sabbas R. Christ the King Rectory Commack, L.I., New York

  

Apostleship of Prayer Anniversary

December 3, 1994, marked the 150th anniversary of the Apostleship of Prayer. The Apostleship has done much over the years to promote devotion to the Heart of Jesus and to the Heart of Mary within the context of the Morning Offering.

Notes:

  1. Scriptural quotations are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, Doubleday & Company.
  2. Michael Lawrence, C.SS.P., You Have to Love to Teach, Ligourian, September 1974, p.4.
  3. Directory on the Ministry and Life of Priests, as in special supplement of Inside the Vatican, p. 11.
  4. Pope John Paul II, Inside the Vatican, December, 1994, pp. 29-39.
  5. Directory on the Ministry and Life of Priests, op. cit., p.15.
  6. Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, Dell Books, p.129.
  7. Fr. Philip Hamilton, Padre’s Point, Alt Pub. Co., pp. 151-152.
  8. Fr. Arthur Calkins, Soul Magazine, January-February 1995, p. 30.
  9. J. Beevers, St. Therese, The Little Flower, The Making of a Saint, Tan Publishers, p. 136.
     
     

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Shepherds of Christ

A Spiritual Newsletter for Priests

MARCH/APRIL 1995

Chief Shepherd of the Flock

“I am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd is one who lays down His life for His sheep. The hired man, since he is not the shepherd and the sheep do not belong to him, abandons the sheep and runs away as soon as he sees a wolf coming, and then the wolf attacks and scatters the sheep. This is because he is only a hired man and has no concern for the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know th