Untitled - Saints' Books

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Sancti
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56 Material for Sermons. [PART i.
born for God, not for himself." That is, a priest
should disregard his conveniencies, his interests, and
amusements; he should consider that from the day that
he has received the priesthood, he belongs not to him
self, but to God; and should attend only to the interests
of God. The Lord evidently wishes his priests to be
pure and holy; that being cleansed from every defect,
they may approach the altar to offer sacrifice to him:
And, says the Prophet Malachy, He shall sit refining and
cleansing the silver, andHe shall purify the sons of Levi, and
shall refine them as gold and as silver, and they shall offer
sacrifices to the Lord in justice? In the book of Leviticus
he says: They shall be holy to their God, and shall not pro
fane His name; for they offer the burnt offerings of the Lord,
and the bread of their 3
God, and therefore they shall be holy.
The priests of the Old Law, then, were commanded to
be holy, because they offered to God incense and the
loaves of proposition, that were but a figure of the most
holy Sacrament of the altar. How much greater should
be the purity and sanctity of the priests of the New Law
that offer to God the immaculate Lamb, his own very
Son ? Estius says that we do not offer calves or in
cense, as the priests of the Old Law did, but the body
of Christ who was hanging on the cross." Hence
Bellarmine says:
"Woe be to us miserable beings, to
1 "
Verus minister altaris Deo, non sibi, natus est." In Ps. cxviii
s. 3.
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Et sedebit conflans et emundans argentum; et purgabit filios
Levi, et colabit eos quasi aurum et quasi argentum; et erunt Domino
offerentes sacrificia in justitia."
Mai. iii. 3.
erunt Deo suo et non polluent nomen ejus; incensum
enim Domini et panes Dei sui offerunt, et ideo sancti erunt." Levit.
xxi. 6.
4
"
Ipsum videlicet Corpus Domini, quod in ara crucis pependit.
Ideoque sanctitas requiritur, quse sita est in puritate animi; sine qua,
quisquis ad haec tremenda mysteria accedit, immundus accedit." In
Levit. xxi. 6.