Saint John Vianney often said this and the patron saint of priests knew of what he spoke. Could there be a higher or more important or more selfless calling?
Fittingly, earlier this year, on the 150th anniversary of Saint John Vianney’s departure from earthly life and entry into the Father’s Kingdom, Pope Benedict XVI declared The Year for Priests.
Here, then a reminder to not only pray for vocations, but also pray for those priests who daily sacrifice so much for the Lord. Pray for their judgement, health and constant zeal to proclaim the Holy Word.
Pope Benedict put it in extraordinary context (doesn’t he always?) in his letter proclaiming the Year for Priests (see entire text here):
I still treasure the memory of the first parish priest at whose side I exercised my ministry as a young priest: he left me an example of unreserved devotion to his pastoral duties, even to meeting his own death in the act of bringing viaticum to a gravely ill person. I also recall the countless confreres whom I have met and continue to meet, not least in my pastoral visits to different countries: men generously dedicated to the daily exercise of their priestly ministry. Yet the expression of Saint John Mary (Vianney) also makes us think of Christ’s pierced Heart and the crown of thorns which surrounds it. I also think, therefore, of the countless situations of suffering endured by many priests, either because they themselves share in the manifold human experience of pain or because they encounter misunderstanding from the very persons to whom they minister. How can we not also think of all those priests who are offended in their dignity, obstructed in their mission and persecuted, even at times to offering the supreme testimony of their own blood?
The Year for Priests, “meant to deepen the commitment of all priests to interior renewal for the sake of a stronger and more incisive witness to the Gospel in today’s world,” will end in 2010 on the same day it began this year — on June 19, the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Don’t we all treasure the priests that have such an influence in our lives? Who helped us through troubling times? Who administered the sacraments to us?
Priests do so much and, in my experience, to a man, they make it seem as if you are the only one to which they minister. Imagine all the people to which they must pour out so much of themselves! Please pray for priests throughout this Year for Priests. Help them by becoming more active in your parish. Volunteer for ministries. Most of all, don’t take them for granted.
