Dear Eminence

What does it mean to be a priest?

Eminence;

Your Blessings.

The following is something I read, many years ago when I was 14 years old. It has stuck in my mind over the years and I thought I would share it with you. Please feel free to post it at Apostle1.com if you wish.

What does it mean to be a priest?

Thou Art a Priest Forever

"To live in the midst of the world without wishing its pleasures; to be a member of each family, yet belonging to none; to share all sufferings; to penetrate all secrets; to heal all wounds; to go from men to God and offer Him their prayers; to return from God to men to bring pardon and hope; to have a heart of fire for charity and a heart of bronze for chastity; to teach and to pardon, console and bless always. My God, what a life! and it is yours, O priest of Jesus Christ!"

Lacordaire

Father Jean-Baptiste-Henri Dominique Lacordaire, O.P,

was born near Dijon, France on 13 May 1802. By the time of his death at Soreze, France on 21 November 1861, he had become the greatest pulpit orator of the 19th century.

Besides being a priest, Lacordaire had been an atheist, a lawyer, a convert to the Catholic faith, and renowned throughout France. Had it not been for the French Revolution, Lacordaire would have come to the United States to serve in the Archdiocese of New York as a priest.

Very Rev. Fr. +Gregori, SSJt - Abbot

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