Guide to Ongoing Formation for Priests (Ascension)

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Chapter 6: Pastoral Formation

226 Saintly priests through the ages testify as well to the power of a priest’s ascetical practices in his pastoral work. 205 Every day the priest approaches the altar of God and kisses the place of Christ’s sacrifice. Doing this reminds him that he is called to live out that sacrifice in his own life as both priest and victim, in union with the High Priest. “Loving the Cross in a hedonistic society is a scandal,” the DMLP observes, “but from a perspective of faith it is the fount of interior life. The priest must preach the redemptive value of the cross with his style of life.” 206 As the bishop exhorts the ordinands in the Rite of Ordination, “Understand what you will do, imitate what you will celebrate, and conform your life to the mystery of the Lord’s Cross.” 207 227 For personal sacrifices to enrich his pastoral work, a priest needs to make some practical resolutions. At times, and with the approval of his spiritual director, he may wish to employ more demanding ascetical practices, as St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing. No, I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified” (1 Cor 9:26-27). 208 Such sacrifices, in addition to their potential benefit to the priest himself, may be the best way to advance his pastoral work. To a priest who complained that his apostolic zeal was bearing no fruit, St. John Vianney suggested, “You have offered humble prayers to God, you have wept, you have groaned, you have sighed. Have you added fasts, vigils, sleeping on the floor, castigation 205 As leaders of the community, priests “ideally cultivate the asceticism proper to a pastor of souls, renouncing their own conveniences, seeking what is profitable for the many and not for themselves, so that the many may be saved. They are always going to greater lengths to fulfill their pastoral duties more adequately. Where there is need, they are ready to undertake new pastoral approaches under the lead of the loving Spirit who breathes where He will.” PO, no. 13. 206 DMLP, no. 67. 207 Roman Pontifical, Ordination of a Bishop, of Priests, and of Deacons , no. 135. 208 The Greek word for “drive” here refers to severe, even harsh, discipline, such as that used by a boxer preparing for a match.

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