Guide to Ongoing Formation for Priests

84 | GUIDE TO ONGOING FORMATION FOR PRIESTS

217. Because the primary means of fulfilling the priest’s evangelical mission is through the sacraments, an important marker for pastoral forma tion is a love for administering them faithfully, reverently, and generously, especially the Mass and the Sacrament of Penance. 186 A priest can find no more effective way to promote the salvation of souls. 187 Beyond the sacra ments, he faithfully intercedes for the people he serves. 188 He brings them and their needs before the Lord every day, confident that his priestly voca tion is meant for their spiritual regeneration and has a special claim on God’s blessing. He has a particular desire to foster vocations to the priest hood, diaconate, and consecrated life, seeing in such work a privileged and grace-filled opportunity to multiply his efforts to spread the Gospel. 189 As priests, we should know our parishioners. Our engagement with our congregation informs our preaching and forms us. There is a recip rocal relationship in a priest’s preaching: I give to feed the congregation, and what I receive from the congregation feeds me. This bond is fluid and continual: “The homily is the touchstone for judging a pastor’s closeness and ability to communicate to his people. We know that the faithful attach great importance to it, and that both they and their ordained ministers suffer because of homilies: the laity from having to listen to them and the clergy from having to preach them! It is sad that this is the case. The homily can actually be an intense and happy experience of the Spirit, a consoling encounter with God’s word, a constant source of renewal and growth. 190 218. 186 “The ministry itself, by which the priest brings Christ’s redemptive gifts to his people, transforms the priest’s own life. In a particular way, the celebrations of the sacraments lead the priest to a holy encounter with God’s all-transforming, merciful love.” PPF, no. 41. 187 “While the service of the Word is the fundamental element of the priestly ministry, its heart and vital center is undoubtedly the Eucharist, which is above all the real presence in time of the one and eternal sacrifice of Christ. Sacramental memorial of the death and resurrection of Christ, real and efficacious rep resentation of the singular redeeming Sacrifice, source and apex of the Christian life and all evangelization (see PO, no. 5; SC, nos. 78, 84-88), the Eucharist is the beginning, means and end of the priestly ministry, since ‘all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate are bound up with the Holy Eucharist and are directed towards it’ (ibid.). Consecrated in order to perpetuate the Holy Sacrifice, the priest thus manifests his identity in the most evident manner.” DMLP, no. 66. 188 “They themselves will take special care in celebrating the Eucharist with the full awareness that, in Christ and with Christ, they are the intercessors before God, not only to apply the Sacrifice of the Cross for the salvation of humanity, but also to present to divine benevolence the particular intention entrusted to them.” DMLP, no. 69. 189 “It is ‘a necessary requirement of pastoral charity’ (PDV, no. 74), of love for one’s priesthood for each priest—ever docile to the grace of the Holy Spirit—to be concerned about inspiring vocations to the priest hood that may continue his ministry at the service of the Lord and for the good of humanity.” DMLP, no. 43. See CIC, c. 233. 190 Francis, Evangelii Gaudium (On the Proclamation of the Gospel in Today’s World) , November 24, 2013, no. 135, www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_ evangelii-gaudium.html . See also USCCB Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations, Preaching the Mystery of Faith: The Sunday Homily (Washington, DC: USCCB, 2012).