How reading St. Francis de Sales has made me a better priest

January 24^th, Feast of St. Francis de Sales

“Introduction to the Devout Life”, the spiritual classic in which St. Francis de Sales sets forth the life of devotion not so much for the consecrated religious or cleric but for the laity, is surely the most popular work of the Doctor of the Catholic Press. This is one of those very few books worth reading two hundred times and more. It serves as a trustworthy guide to sanctity.

Since my ordination to the priesthood (three and a half years ago), this little “Introduction” for lay people has had an immeasurable impact on my own approach to moral and spiritual theology – reading St. Francis de Sales has made me a better priest.

When was Jesus ordained a priest?

The Infant Priest - Source: NLM [here]

30^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Hebrews 5:1-6

No one takes this honor upon himself but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. In the same way, it was not Christ who glorified himself in becoming high priest.

While St. Paul, in his Letter to the Hebrews, generally distinguishes our Savior from Aaron (showing that the priesthood of Christ is greater than that of Aaron), in this place the Apostle emphasizes this point of similarity between the Levitical priesthood and the eternal priesthood of Jesus.

Namely, St. Paul tells us that, just as Aaron was called and ordained a priest, so too was our Lord. For no man can be a high priest of himself, but only when he is so called by God.

When, we ask, was Jesus called and ordained to the priesthood? When did he become a priest?

Ought the preacher to carry neither food, nor sack, nor money? Must he wear only sandals?

St. Francis of Assisi, lover of poverty

15^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Mark 6:7-13

He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick – no food, no sack, no money in their belts. They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic.

When our Savior sent forth the twelve Apostles in pairs to preach the Gospel to the Jews, he bade them to carry no earthly provisions for their ministry, but simply to rely wholly upon the good will of the people to whom they preached. Through the centuries, many saints have imitated the letter of this precept – the obvious example is of St. Francis of Assisi.

However, it is most common today for both the parish priest and the apostolic preacher to carry not only a walking stick, but even several tunics. While bishops and priests surely do rely upon the free-will offerings of the people (generally through the Sunday collection), they now have not only shoes (as opposed to merely sandals), but even cars!

What shall we say of this? Are the Catholic bishops and priests of the modern day failing to observe Christ’s precept of poverty?

St. John the Baptist, a model for priests

June 24^th, Nativity of St. John the Baptist

The Precursor’s Nativity is celebrated by the Church because, even from the womb, he chosen and sanctified for his vocation. The Baptist is the greatest of the prophets, and is more than a prophet, for he rejoiced to see the day of the Bridegroom.

While the priest, in very specific moments, acts in persona Christi, most of his ministry is more closely tied to that of St. John the Baptist – directing people to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. In this respect, St. John is a model for the priest as “friend of the Bridegroom” and “voice of one crying out in the wilderness”.

On a personal note, St. John the Baptist is particularly dear to me as a model for the priesthood, as I was ordained a priest on the Vigil of his Nativity three years ago.

Aloysius Gonzaga, Thomas More, and second marriages

St. Aloysius, the pure

June 21^st, St. Aloysius Gonzaga

June 22^nd, St. Thomas More

While St. Aloysius Gonzaga is notable for his great purity – indeed, not only did he shun all impurity, but it is said that he did not even look upon the face of any woman, not even his own mother! – St. Thomas More is recognized as one of the great married saints of the modern Church. Certainly, St. Thomas More was mot pure and chaste, but St. Aloysius lived out the evangelical council of chastity to is perfection through a life of perpetual continence and virginity (i.e. avoiding all sexual pleasure).

And so, we see something of a tension: Can the Church on the one hand teach that St. Aloysius is a better example of purity on account of his perfect celibacy, and on the other hand still honor and reverence St. Thomas More who was married not only once but twice (after his first wife died)? How is it that the Catholic Church can exalt celibacy without degrading marriage?

"Sacred eloquence" in Christian preaching

The eloquent tongue of St. Anthony
miraculously from corruption

June 13^th, Feast of St. Anthony of Padua

While St. John Chrysostom is the patron saint of preachers, there can be no doubt that St. Anthony of Padua is a most superb model for all Christian preaching. Not only is he recognized as the great preacher of the Friars Minor (i.e. the Franciscans), we must also recognize that many of his greatest miracles are associated with his preaching.

Consider, for example, his famous sermon to the fishes on the bank of the river Brenta near Padua – his spiritual father, St. Francis, is often remembered for speaking to animals, but it was St. Anthony who preached to the fishes!

Beyond this most extraordinary example of preaching, recall that he once bilocated while preaching on Holy Thursday; that, on another occasion, he preserved his audience from getting wet while he preached in the midst of a rainstorm; and that, when once the pulpit in which he was preaching collapsed and fell among the hearers, none was hurt, not even the saint himself.

We do well then, in honor of St. Anthony, to consider what is the sacred eloquence of a truly Christian preaching, and how this differs from the profane eloquence of worldly discourse.

Love the shepherd, beware of the wolf, tolerate the hireling

4^th Sunday of Easter, John 10:11-18

A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them.

Preaching on this verse, St. Augustine once said, “The shepherd is to be loved, the hireling is to be tolerated, of the robber must we beware.” He refers these three characters to three classes of priests.

On Good Shepherd Sunday, we do well to consider the qualities of these characters and, even more, how the faithful ought to relate to their priests and bishops. Why is it that the people should tolerate the hireling?

We will rely on St. Augustine’s eighty-seventh sermon on the New Testament [here], from which the title quotation comes.

Catholic schools and vocations to the priesthood - The example of Don Bosco

January 31^st, Feast of St. John Bosco

This week, the Catholic Church in the United States of America celebrates Catholic Schools Week. The US Bishops ask us to consider the great blessing which Catholic schools are to our Church and to our community at large.

During Catholic Schools Week, we call to mind the fact that Catholic schools benefit not only the families who send their children there, but the whole Church and all society. Every Catholic, even if he has no children in Catholic schools (even if he has never had children in the schools), should see Catholic schools as his schools – every Catholic benefits from Catholic schools, and every Catholic has a duty of supporting Catholic schools.

Today, I would like to point out one way in which every Catholic benefits from Catholics schools: Catholic schools produce vocations to the priesthood and religious life. It is particularly fitting that we consider this benefit today, the feast of St. John Bosco – the schools which he founded produced over six thousand vocations to the priesthood during his life-time (and countless more since his death).

Christ taught as one having authority. But what does that mean?

4^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Mk 1:21-28

The people were astonished at [Jesus’] teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.

Both here in Mark’s Gospel (which we will read from this Sunday) and in Matthew’s Gospel at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, the people are amazed at Jesus’ doctrine because he teaches as one having authority. But what does this mean? What was different about the way that Jesus taught? And, finally, how can priests today follow Christ’s example in their preaching?

Christ, prophet and professor

The Lord Jesus is the “new Moses”, the prophet spoken of by Moses in Sunday’s first reading (Deuteronomy 18:15-20): A prophet like me with the LORD, your God, raise up for you from among your kin; to him you shall listen.

What if the priest messes up the words of consecration?

This past Sunday, in the English speaking world, the new translation of the Mass was implemented. While there were certainly many of little mistakes – most notably, the struggle to say “And with your spirit” – we all can recognize that these are of no great consequence. Surely, we want to celebrate the Mass correctly, but a mistake is only a mistake, right?

However, there is one area where we recognize that a mistake could have serious consequences: What happens if the priest does not say the words of consecration correctly? What if he confuses one or two words, especially if he accidently says some portion of the old translation?

The ambition of a priest desiring to become a bishop

31^st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Matthew 23:1-12

Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees […] preach but they do no not practice. […] All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues, greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi.’

It should give every priest of the New Law pause to recognize that the chief criticism which our Savior levels against the Pharisees is that they are vainglorious and ambitious. They sit in the chair of Moses and have accrued to themselves great pastoral responsibility, but have failed to exercise their authority for the good of the sheep and have instead sought only to gain worldly honor for themselves.

As the Fathers and Doctors of the Church consider this passage from Scripture, they comment on the danger of the vice of ambition (and also the sin of vainglory) which can be so injurious to the priestly vocation. Ambition in the priesthood can mean the desire for a “more important” parish or a more prominent role in the diocese, but it is most especially typified by the desire for the episcopal rank. The height of ambition and pride for a (diocesan) priest is seen in his desire to be a bishop.

Is it lawful to desire to be a bishop? What must the priest do in order to avoid the sin of ambition? For direction on this point, we look to the greatest doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas.

On the authority of bishops, from St. Ignatius of Antioch

October 17^th, Feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch

On December 20^th, in the Roman Martyrology, we read: “At Rome, the passion of St. Ignatius, Bishop and Martyr; he was the third after St. Peter the Apostle to rule the Church of Antioch, and in the persecution of Trajan was condemned to the beasts and sent to Rome in fetters. There he was afflicted and tortured by the most cruel torments in the very presence of the Senate. Finally he was cast to the lions and, ground by their teeth, became a sacrifice for Christ.”

 St. Ignatius of Antioch has rightly been called the “Doctor of Unity” – both insofar as he brilliantly set forth the doctrine of the unity of the person of Christ in two natures, and as he defended the unity of the Christian people within the hierarchy of the Church. As the unity of the single person of Christ cannot be properly defended without admitting the diversity of his two natures, so too (we say by analogy) the unity of the Church cannot be maintained without the diversity of hierarchical vocations within the mystical body.

Today, in honor of our saintly Bishop and Martyr, we consider the role of the bishops of the Church – specifically, we do well to call to mind the special relation between the priests and the bishops. [This is particularly important in our days, when many so-called “conservative” priests rebel against the authority of their bishops.]

Does a parish priest have time to blog?

The question of clerical bloggers

The Catholic blogosphere sometimes reminds me of the early Church – all sorts of people are saying all sorts of things, some are right, some are almost right, and some are way wrong. The internet is an environment with very little control, hence there is almost no on-line oversight from the Church’s pastors (i.e. the bishops). What is more, the internet culture is often looked down upon by the Hierarchy – both by bishops and by many of the priests. I notice that older priests are especially quick to discredit Catholic blogs (whether this is because the Catholic blogosphere is quite conservative or whether it is just a simple matter of “hiding one’s head in the sand”, I do not know).

There are legitimate questions raised occasionally, especially when it comes to priests (and, I suppose, bishops) who contribute to blogs: Is the blogosphere really a dignified place for a preist? Does a priest have time to write for a blog? And, finally, If a priest does have a blog, what should it look like?

In this little article, I would like to provide something of an answer to these questions. In the course of my response, I hope as well to give people a little insight into how a priest might fit “blogging” into his busy schedule.

The good confessor, according to St. Alphonsus

August 1^st, Feast of St. Alphonsus

St. Alphonsus teaches that there are four roles which the priest must perform with excellence in order to be a good confessor: He is a father, a physician, a teacher, and a judge. To fulfill these aspects of his duty as a confessor, the priest must, of course, be holy – but personal holiness alone will not suffice. Indeed, the confessor must be well-learned in the matters of moral theology. Here, we recall that St. Teresa thought it better to have a confessor who was learned but not holy, than one who was holy but not learned.

On the feast of the Doctor of Moral Theology, we consider the advice which St. Alphonsus gives to confessors. We should hope that priests would find a renewed zeal to read the works of the Patron Saint of confessors.

Holy Thursday: The first concelebrated Mass

Within certain traditional Catholic circles, the practice of priests concelebrating Mass is looked upon with some suspicion. I tend to sympathize, since it is duly noted that the practice of multiple priests celebrating a single Mass is not a regular part of the Roman Catholic liturgical tradition.  However, while one may object to certain practical applications of the rite of concelebration, it is quite certain that the theory or idea of concelebration cannot be rejected. Simply put, it is entirely possible for multiple priests to consecrate one and the same host at a single Mass.

Various abuses of the practice of concelebration have led some priests to adopt a truly disgusting and despicable phraseology regarding concelebration – they tell us that concelebration should be “safe, legal, and rare.” This, of course, is comparing the practice of concelebration to the murder of children through abortion (the phrase “safe, legal, and rare” being the cry of pro-abortion advocates). Rather than adopting such a ghastly catch-phrase, we will attempt to elucidate the ratio of concelebration. This will show why the practice is both valid and, at the same time, ought to be reserved to the most solemn of occasions.

What John did not know about Jesus

2^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, John 1:29-34

“I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’”

John the Baptist testifies that he did not know Jesus until after the baptism, when he saw the Holy Spirit come down and remain upon the Lord. But what can the Baptist possibly mean? What did he not know about Jesus? Recall, of course, that John was the second cousin of the Lord – for his mother Elizabeth was the cousin of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Could it be that the child of the visitation, who leapt in the womb in the presence of the unborn Lord, did not recognize the Messiah when he came to him as a man?

In what may be the greatest scriptural commentary of the early Church, the Tractates on John, St. Augustine discusses this very point. We will rely on him as a sure witness to the Tradition, and a guide in speculative theology.