Untitled - Saints' Books

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160 Material for Sermons. LPARTI.
Every priest, says St. John Chrysostom, is, as it were,
the father of the whole world, and therefore should have
:i
care of all the souls to whose salvation he can co-operate
by his labors. 1 Besides, priests are appointed by God
as physicians to cure every soul that is infirm; thus
Origen has called them "
Physicians of souls," and St.
2
Jerome, Spiritual physicians."
Hence St. Bonaventure
says, If the physician flees from the sick, who will cure
them?" 4
Priests are also called the walls of the Church: "The
Church has her walls," says St. Ambrose, that is, her
apostolic And men." the author of the
!
Imperfect
Work" says, "Her walls are the priests." They are
also called the stones that support the Church of God, 7
and by St. Eucherius they are called the pillars that
sustain the tottering world. 8
Finally, they are called by
St. Bernard the very house of God. Hence we may say
of the house
with St. John Chrysostom, that if a part
fall, the injury may be easily repaired; 9 but if the walls
fall, if the foundations and the pillars that sustain the
edifice give way; finally, if the whole house tumbles to
the ground, how can the loss be ever repaired
? More
over, priests are called by the same St. John Chrysostom,
the husbandmen of the 10
vineyard of the Lord. But, O
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Quasi totius orbis pater Sacerdos est; dignum igitur est ut om
nium curam agat, sicut et Deus, cujus fungitur
vice." In i Tim.
horn. 6.
5 "Medicos animarum."
3 "Medicos spirituales."
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8 "
Si medicus fugit aegrotos, quis curabit?" De Sex Alls Scr. c. 5.
Habet et Ecclesia muros suos." In Ps. 118, s. 22.
Muri illius sunt Sacerdotes." Horn. 10.
Lapides
sanctuarii." Lam. iv. i.
Columnar sanctorum, merita Sacerdotum sunt, qui nutantis mundi
statum orationibus sustinent."
9 "
Horn, de Dcdic. eccl.
Si pars domus fuerit corrupta, facilis est reparatio."
Horn. 47.
10
Coloni populum, "
quasi vineam, colentes." Horn. 40.