Guide to Ongoing Formation for Priests (Ascension)

GOFP 114

Guide to Ongoing Formation for Priests

a. Good fathers exhibit the capacity to sacrifice , to be generous. Can a priest spend himself for others, or does he live primarily for himself? 88 b. Discipline and responsibility are needed in a father. Is a priest reliable, can he keep a schedule, and does he show up on time, dedicating himself to the task at hand? c. A father particularly needs humility in the exercise of paternal authority. Jesus told his Apostles that among the Gentiles, “the great ones make their authority . . . felt,” while the one who “wishes to be great among you shall be your servant” (Mt 20:25-26). Like all Christian fathers, the priest wants to use his authority forbearingly so that it truly fosters the growth of those entrusted to his care. A father needs to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep. 89 His sympathy with the people he serves often opens him to a very deep encounter. d. Sincerity is an important virtue in a father. Is the priest a man of his word, open and authentic, and transparent with his spiritual director, with his friends, with God himself? e. Good fathers are patient and kind . Is a priest gentle with the souls entrusted to his care? Can he be both tender and strong like the best fathers? As a spiritual father, is he a man of encouragement who knows how to lift up and sympathetically exhort his people to a higher way of life? 90 88 “The ministry of the priest is therefore also the ministry of fatherhood. Through his dedication to souls many are those generated to the new life in Christ. This is a true spiritual fatherhood as St. Paul exclaimed: ‘You might have thousands of guardians in Christ, but not more than one father and it was I who begot you in Christ Jesus by preaching the Good News’ (1 Cor 4:15).” DMLP, no. 24. 89 See Rm 12:15. 90 “Revealing himself at all times as priest, he will therefore exercise his spiritual mission with kindness and firmness, humility and a spirit of service, opening himself to compassion, participating in the sufferings inflicted upon men by the various forms of poverty, spiritual and material, old and new. He will also know how to bend over with mercy upon the difficult and uncertain journey of the conversion of sinners, to whom he will reserve the gift of truth and the patient, encouraging benevo lence of the Good Shepherd, who does not reprove the lost sheep, but loads it onto his shoulders and celebrates its return to the fold (cf. Lk 15:4-7).” DMLP, no. 41.

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