Guide to Ongoing Formation for Priests (Ascension)

GOFP 112

Guide to Ongoing Formation for Priests

into different circumstances and relationships, but always emerging from the same source. 83

112 The common thread that ties together the various components of the personality of the priest is his relationship with Jesus, who calls him to participate in his pastoral charity. 84 He approaches all of his activities and interests in a spirit of Christ’s pastoral charity. 85 At the heart of his plan of life is daily prayer, which encounters Jesus as the source of priestly life. Surrounding those key spiritual exercises is a balanced life of work, recreation, exercise, diet, and vacation. 86 The priest has a healthy love for the world and fosters an interest in culture, beauty, and nature without falling into the superficiality of secularism. 113 In addition, unity of life includes the way a priest approaches the various moments and situations of his life. It means that the priest is always the same person in all his dealings with others, whether those occur in person or through digital communication. Unity of life excludes any sense of a double life, obscuring of one’s identity, or any other behavior that conflicts with being a priest. This unity of life is not just about avoiding duplicity and scandal. The priest is a public person, which means that he accepts the need for a great deal 83 “Of special importance is the capacity to relate to others. This is truly fundamental for a person who is called to be responsible for a community and to be a ‘man of communion.’” PDV, no. 43. 84 “Priests attain to the unity of their lives by uniting themselves with Christ in acknowledging the Fa ther’s will and in the gift of themselves on behalf of the flock committed to them. Thus, by assuming the role of the Good Shepherd, they will find in the very exercise of pastoral love the bond of priestly perfection which will unify their lives and activities.” Second Vatican Council, Presbyterorum Ordinis (Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests) , no. 14, in The Documents of Vatican II , ed. Walter M. Abbott (New York: Corpus Books, 1966). Subsequently cited as PO. 85 “This same pastoral charity is the dynamic inner principle capable of unifying the many different activities of the priest. In virtue of this pastoral charity the essential and permanent demand for unity between the priest’s interior life and all his external actions and the obligations of the ministry can be properly fulfilled, a demand particularly urgent in a socio - cultural and ecclesial context strongly marked by complexity, fragmentation and dispersion. Only by directing every moment and every one of his acts toward the fundamental choice to “give his life for the flock” can the priest guarantee this unity which is vital and indispensable for his harmony and spiritual balance.” PDV, no. 23. 86 See CIC, c. 283, §2.

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