Untitled - Saints' Books

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CHAP, in.]
Sanctity Necessary for the Priest. 67
creatures, but only from God. He must be clothed
with humility, considering himself worthy of all pun
ishment and contempt; with meekness, being sweet to
all, particularly to the rude and passionate; with charity
towards God arid man: towards God, living in an entire
union of his soul with God, and making his heart, by
means of mental prayer, an altar on which the fire of
divine love always burns; and towards man, fulfilling the
as the elect
instruction of the Apostle: Put ye on, therefore,
of God, holy and beloved, the bowels of mercy; and endeavor
1
ing to the best of his ability to relieve all in their spiri
tual and temporal necessities. I
say all even his per
secutors and those that treat him with ingratitude.
St. Augustine says: "Nothing in this world is more
of men
advantageous or more honorable in the eyes
than the priestly office. But in the eyes of God nothing
is more formidable, important, and dangerous. It is
a great happiness and advantage to be a priest, to have
the power of making the Incarnate Word descend from
heaven into his hands, and of delivering souls from sin
and hell, to be the vicar of Jesus Christ, the light of the
world, the mediator between God and men, to be raised
and exalted above all the monarchs of the earth, to have
greater power than the angels, in a word, to be, as St.
Clement says, a God on earth:
nothing more advantageous.
But, on the other hand, nothing more important and dan
gerous? For if in his hands, Jesus Christ descends to
be his food, the priest must be more pure than the
clearest water, as St. Francis of Assisi was told in a
vision. If he is a mediator before God in favor of men,
1 "
Induite vos ergo, sicut elect! Dei, sancti et dilecti, viscera misericordiae."
Col. iii. 12.
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2 "
Nihil in hac vita felicius et hominibus acceptability Presbyteri
officio; sed nihil apud Deum miserius, et tristius, et damnabilius.
Epist. 21, E. B.
Const. A post. 1. 2, c. 26.