Quotes on the Power of the Eucharist and
the Vocation to Priesthood
VATICAN CITY, MAY 31,
2005
On Priestly
Sanctification:
"Nothing More Beautiful Than to Be Conquered by Christ":
Here is the document published by the Congregation for
Clergy, for the World Day of Prayer for Sanctification of
Priests
This experience of a
relationship with Christ means to enter in his friendship,
to the point of not being able to exclude Him, never to feel
alone, not to doubt his love. "The Lord calls us friends, he
makes us his friends, he gives himself to us, he gives
himself to us in his body in the Holy Eucharist, he entrusts
us to his Church. And thus we must truly be his friends, to
have with him only one desire, to want that which He wants
and not to want that which He does not want. Jesus himself
says: 'you are my friends if you do that which I command'
(John 15:14)" (Benedict XVI, Discourse of 13 May 2005).
Our Christian and
priestly spirituality is relational or of friendship, it is
a giving in union with the charity of the Good Shepherd, it
is transforming so that it makes us a clear sign of Jesus
himself, it is Marian in that it approaches the school of
Mary, it is of ecclesial communion, it is ministerial or of
service, it is missionary. … It is nearly always an attitude
of thanksgiving "Eucharistic," of one who feels loved by the
Lord and as a consequence, wants to love all and wants to be
loved by all.
The Year of the Eucharist (2004-2005) is therefore a strong
invitation to enter into the mind of Christ, to love the
Church as he did and to live with him in the communion of
the Church. The Petrine ministry has been experienced in our
hearts as never before in the month of April of this year,
with two Popes who have invited us to a life centered on
Christ in the Most Holy Eucharist, through experience,
eating that "same bread" which in which we are "one body" (1
Corinthians 10:17).
Ecclesial Communion is made real for us in this "listening"
or should we say lived "obedience" ("obaudire") in the
ministry of the Apostles, of which we are part. The early
community was "of one heart and one body" (Acts 4:32)
because at the celebration of the "breaking of the bread"
(Eucharist), it knew how to "listen" with fidelity in an
attitude of prayer to the apostolic teaching "they devoted
themselves to the Apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the
breaking of bread and the prayers" (Acts 2:42).
In truth there is
nothing more beautiful than to be conquered by Christ.
Living faithfully in communion with the Petrine charism and
ministry, rediscovering this reality of our pastoral
vocation as sources of the paschal joy of Christ in us and
others "There is nothing more beautiful than to know Him and
to speak to others of our friendship with Him. The task of
the shepherd, the task of the fisher of men, can often seem
wearisome. But it is beautiful and wonderful, because it is
truly a service to joy, to God's joy which longs to break
into the world" (ibidem).
This Eucharistic, priestly and missionary life in communion
with the Church is learnt by living in the "cenacle" with
Mary the Mother of Jesus (Acts 1:14). Now we can imitate her
oneness with the priestly heart of Christ, because she is
our mother, because of the fact that she is the "Mother of
the unique High Priest. Truly in our union to Christ and to
the Virgin we are nourished by that serenity and that faith
of which we all have need, either for our apostolic work or
for our personal existence" (Benedict XVI, 13 May 2005)
