Untitled - Saints' Books

290 Material for Instructions. [PART n.
Hence the saint has written in another place:
"Priests
l
should always devote themselves to prayer."
Father
John d Avila used to say, that the offices which a priest
holds of offering sacrifice and of offering incense go
together. 2 Every one knows that incense signifies
. .
golden vials
prayer: Let my prayer be directed as incense in Thy sight*
Hence St. John saw the .
angels having
full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints." Oh,
what sweet odor do the prayers of good priests give to
God ! On account of the necessity of mental prayer
for ecclesiastics, St. Charles Borromeo ordained, in the
Council of Milan, 5 that every ecclesiastic, before his
ordination, should be interrogated in a special manner
whether he knew how to make mental prayer, whether
he was in the habit of making it, and what meditations
he used. Father John d Avila once dissuaded a person
from taking priesthood because he was not accustomed
to make mental prayer.
I do not intend to detail at length the reasons why
the practice of mental prayer
is
morally necessary for
that without mental
every priest. It is
enough to say,
prayer a priest has but little light; for without it he will
reflect but little on the great affair of salvation, he will
scarcely see the obstacles to it, and the obligations that
he must fulfil in order to be saved. Hence the Saviour
said to his disciples: Let your loins be girt, and lamps burn
ing in your hands. 6 These lamps, says St. Bonaventure, 7
" 1
(Sacerdotes) die noctuque pro plebe sibi commissa oportet orare."
/// i 7V///. iii.
2
Incensum enim Domini "
et panes
3 "
cxl. 2.
4 "
Dei sui offerunt." Levit. xxi. 6.
Dirigatur oratio mea sicut incensum in conspectu
tuo." Ps.
Phialas aureas plenas odoramentorum, quse sunt orationes sanc
torum."
Apoc.
v. 8.
5 Anno 1579, Const, p. 3,
n. 2.
G "Sint lumbi vestri praecincti, et lucernse ardentes in manibus
vestris." Luke, xii. 35.
7
DicEta sal. t. 2, c. 5.